Coming Together
by Sarryb
Summary: COMPLETE! CSI, CSI:Miami, CSI:NY The three labs work together in Washington DC to solve a federal case. The clues are there, but can they put the puzzle together before it's too late? Rated T just to be sure.
1. Chapter 1

**_Disclaimer: I do not own any CSI, CSI:Miami or CSI:NY characters. I do however own the OC's and the storyline!_**

**_I was going to leave posting this until I was closer to completing it, but decided as long as I don't get too over-excited posting, it should all be fine! I hope people will stick with the story and not disregard it after only the first chapter, I know some people are against crossovers._**

**_This has taken me forever to post elsewhere, I made a small boo boo along the way, but by the time I realised my mistake I had to patch it up, I was too far along to edit, hopefully it doesn't notice, but if it does, way to go if you are that observant!! :o)_**

**_The Chapters start short, and then get longer as I was moaned at for them being too short by some readers, hope you enjoy!_**

Chapter One

The phone rings and Horatio picks up the receiver, "Horatio Caine" he says into it.

"This is Jonathan Standing from the FBI headquarters in Washington D.C," says the voice, "I'm calling regarding an urgent matter. I been told we need assistance on a case that is slipping out of our grasp. It's a matter of U.S Government security. It's not that I don't have faith in our investigators, or CSI's here, as I head that team, but my superior has decided we need to bring in reinforcement."

"Tell me more Mr. Standing" Horatio declares.

"We've had meetings and have discussed who to bring in, we've come to our decision based on cases closed, and criminal convictions achieved. I'm to be in charge overall, but three labs have been chosen to bring a team of specialists and detectives, and to work with the FBI lab under me. Before we start the process I'm requesting that yourself and the other lab supervisors meet with me to discuss who they wish to bring into the fold. Other shifts will take on workloads to support the teams that are joining me here, it's all been ok'ed in the highest place. The meeting is to take place at six pm tomorrow, I can expect you to attend?" Mr. Standing finished on an enquiry, which was really more of a demand.

"I'll be there." Horatio tells him.

...

All the way over in Las Vegas Gil Grissom is packing a few bugs into travel bags. "Surely they can stay here Gil?" Catherine says to him.

"Catherine, I'm not sure when I'll be back, maybe I'll just have to call for those who are going to join me there." Grissom tells her.

Earlier that day Grissom had received a very similar call to the one Horatio Caine had just received in Miami,and was making sure everything he wanted to take with him was packed. Looking around to make sure he had what he needed he turns to Catherine and says "wait for my call."

"Ok Gil," she replies "now do you have your tickets?" He waves his tickets at her. "Hotel reservations?" He pats his jacket pocket.

"In here. I'll be fine, just look after the place, I'll call soon."

...

Back across the country in New York, Mac Taylor replaces the telephone receiver. Looking quite stunned he calls Stella into the room.

"What's going on Mac?" She asks him.

"I've been called by FBI headquarters in D.C, for a meeting at Quantico." He tells her, "I have to be there by six pm tomorrow evening."

"For what reason?" She enquires.

"To discuss taking a team out there to assist on a high profile case. Along with two other labs."

"It must be something big, who else is going?" Stella asks him.

"I don't know, I didn't really get any details, it's to do with U.S Government security." Mac continues, "I need to get packed, I don't know when I'll be back, or if I need to call who I require to join me. Put yourself on standby Stella. I've been told other shifts are taking on excess workloads to cover, it seems it's all taken care of and this is meeting is just procedure."

Mac, still looking dazed leaves Stella contemplating why three local labs would need to help the FBI.

**_Reviews would be nice. I know not much has happened yet, I hope you keep reading :o)_**


	2. Chapter 2

**_Disclaimer: I don't own the CSI characters (might have to NOT put this disclaimer at the top of each chapter cos it's bugging me...)_**

Chapter Two

Some time before six pm the following day the three men take their separate journey's from their respective hotels to Quantico, Virginia. Mac Taylor arrives first a good half an hour early, and is taken to a waiting room. He walks around the room, looking at all the pictures adorning the walls. The next arrival is Horatio Caine, upon entering the room, he finds Mac sitting impatiently in a comfy chair. Mac rises and offers his hand. "Lieutenant Caine" he says, "it's been a while."

"Yes sir it has," Horatio replies, "How have you been Detective Taylor?" He asks taking his hand.

Mac shrugs at him. "Not so bad, yourself?"

Horatio responds in kind.

"Do you know any details as to why we are here?" Mac questions Horatio.

"I know as much as you my friend" comes the answer. Just then the door opens, "Hello," starts the man, "I'm Gil Grissom, Vegas lab."

"Mac Taylor, New York"

"Horatio Caine, Miami Dade" they introduce themselves shaking hands. As they finish with their own introductions a fourth man enters the room.

"Jonathan Standing" he announces, "welcome to Quantico!" He says enthusiastically. The three men already in the room glance at each other. "I know who all of you are, no need for introductions, I've read your files thoroughly, just to make sure you," he pauses looking at all of them in turn, "are the people we need, follow me" he finishes striding off. Mac suppresses a smile, was this guy for real?

Jonathan leads them to a large office with a huge desk, he takes the seat to the left of the desk and points the three of them in the direction of three seats together on the right. It was starting to feel like a job interview.

"Right, shall we begin?" Jonathan says as they all get comfortable, "what I can tell you is this, there's been a series of deaths, questionable deaths, that have remained unsolved as of yet. We have the highest quality in Lab technicians, CSI's and equipment, but it seems we need a fresh outlook on things. We think the connection between these deaths lies within the government, in fact maybe within the White House itself. I don't need to tell you that this is highly confidential, and anyone you bring in will have to be trustworthy and discreet."

"We get to choose who accompanies us?" Horatio enquires.

"Yes, but I need a list today, so we can run them through our system and do a background check on each of them" Standing tells them. "You can each invite a detective or officer, and lab technicians and CSI's that you feel are integral to your investigating." He hands them each a pad of paper.

"Now?" Grissom asks surprised.

"The sooner the better." Standing states.

...

The three men get to work, all writing their list. When they have all finished Jonathan says "OK, lets start with you Dr. Grissom."

Grissom stands to hand over his list.

"Oh no, read out the names, I'll type them straight into the computer." He says moving behind the desk. Grissom looks surprised once again. Why did they need to write the lists to begin with?

"Alright, Catherine Willows," he waits for Standing to nod, "Sara Sidle," he continues, "Nick Stokes, Warrick Brown, Greg Sanders, Archie Johnson, Mandy Webster, Bobby Dawson, David Hodges and Detective Captain Jim Brass." He finishes up. Horatio and Mac look at each other, did they need to bring anyone?!

"Lieutenant Caine?" Standing says raising an eyebrow.

"My choices are, Calleigh Duquesne, Eric Delko, Ryan Wolfe, Natalia Boa Vista, Maxine Valera, Dan Cooper, and Detective Sergeant Frank Tripp" Horatio lists.

Standing nods, then looks towards Mac. "Detective Taylor?"

"Ok, Stella Bonasera, Danny Messer, Lindsay Monroe, Dr. Sheldon Hawkes, Adam Ross, and Detective Don Flack Jr." Mac finishes his list.

"Ok gentlemen, the check won't take long, I suggest you retire to your hotels, I'll contact you in the morning to tell you if your team members have passed the security checks, you can then send for your guys." Standing tells them, rising from his seat. He shakes hands with them in turn, then reaches down to press a button. "Maria, can you get Terrence to come and show these gentlemen out please" he says into a small microphone.

**_More soon. Please review. :o)_**


	3. Chapter 3

**_Disclaimer: The usual..._**

Chapter 3

The next morning each of the men receive a phone call to inform them that all of the people on their lists have been cleared. They contact their labs to request that they are joined as soon as possible by their team of choice. Grissom, Mac and Horatio have also been asked to meet at Quantico again to receive briefing files, so after calling home each of them set off to the rendezvous.

Sat together in a brightly lit room, they each have their own copy of the same file to peruse. Quietly flicking through the pages they each make random noises as they notice things that surprise or shock them. Horatio looks up at the other two,

"Does any of this seem a little odd to you?" He asks.

They both pull their eyes away from the papers in front of them.

"Yes, these scenes all seem to have been processed correctly, and evidence followed. But all three cases lead to nothing" Mac nods.

"And all of the cases seem to be linked, but that observation hasn't been noted." Grissom adds.

"Explain please" Horatio says.

"If you look at the victim's profiles, where they work, there seems to be a connection. "Here," he says pointing to victim number one, "Jacob Davies, thirty five, administration assistant, the Pentagon. Victim two, Marcus Seymore, forty two, agency bodyguard, once employed by the first family. Number three, Daisy Leeman, twenty seven, training secretary, the White House. All of them have governmental connections, maybe there's more to this than we first thought?"

"Good eye!" Mac exclaims, "it doesn't say in the file that this avenue has been explored."

"Also," Horatio adds, "the scene's are quite similar, yet not close enough to suggest a typical modus operandi, but there could be connections there. To me it looks as though someone has done their job properly, but they've been pulled short before the final furlong."

"You think that maybe someone is hindering the investigations, so that a conclusion isn't reached, or they're covering for someone?" Mac asks.

"Well I know one investigation that won't be influenced!" Grissom exclaims.

Recalling what Jonathan had told them the previous day, Horatio offers, "Didn't our host say that he thought there may be connections to the government and/or the White House?"

Grissom picks up his copy of the file and starts to check through it again. "That opinion definitely isn't noted in this file."

The men look at each other, all equally as puzzled as one another.

"Well I for one can't wait to get started on this investigation" Mac States.

**_The chapters get longer, and contain a lot more.. please stick with me, reviews appreciated. :o)_**


	4. Chapter 4

**_Disclaimer: The CSI Characters are noooooot miiiiiine._**

**_This chapter is a lot longer. And finally, the all the 'players' arrive._**

**Chapter 4**

Jonathan Standing finally arrives to speak to Grissom, Horatio and Mac, who are still musing over the files and all of their observations.

"Hey, have you had a chance to read through the information I left for you?" He asks them.

Horatio looks at him. "Are these complete files?" He asks.

Standing smiles. "No. They're incomplete, tell me what you've noted."

Mac looks angry, "how can we prepare if the files are incomplete, what sort of operation is this?"

"Well, it's called a test" Standing answers pompously, "to see if you are as good as they say."

Grissom looks ready to explode, but stays calm, "we noticed the link to the government in all three cases, and the fact that it's not noted..." he trails off.

"And that there's no mention of the similar M.O in all three scene." Horatio adds, "but what we don't understand, you've already mentioned the connection to the government, so how is this a test?" Horatio asks annoyed.

Standing looks a bit confused. "I mentioned a connection?"

"Yes!" The three of the chorus.

"Ok, so you guys are good." He hands over the file in his hand, "these are the rest of the documents.

" Also I've decided as you will all be working together you should all be staying in the same hotel, your teams too. So I've reserved some rooms for you, and have taken the liberty of having your possessions moved to your new residence." He waves his hand as Grissom starts to protest. "Your bugs are fine" Standing says rolling his eyes. "There are cars picking up your people, I believe we're only waiting of your colleagues from Las Vegas" he nods towards Grissom, "Everyone's been taken to the hotel, to unpack. They all have notification packs in their rooms, and are all invited to a get together this evening in a hotel meeting room, you will all be required to attend. Tomorrow, it all starts!" Jonathan Standing turns to leave.

"So we can leave now?" Mac asks, before Standing strands them.

"Oh of course" Standing says," look after those files, they may only be copies but they contain highly sensitive material." He frowns. He goes to leave again,

"Um...did you want to tell us which hotel we're staying in?" Horatio blurts out.

Standing laughs nervously, "oh yes! You're all going to be staying at the JW Marriott Hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue, it's rated four stars, wonderful place. It's a two minute drive from the White House, but the distance is walkable, only two blocks. But more importantly, it's only a four minute drive to the J Edgar Hoover building, FBI headquarters, where we will all be based during this investigation. I'll supply cars for you, but their availability is limited so your guys will sometimes have to use public transport. But the FBI building is in walking distance of the hotel too. There's a metro station one block from the hotel, which services three lines, the red, blue and orange lines. So I'm sure everyone will be fine. There is a car waiting out front to drive you to your hotel, I hope your rooms are agreeable, and everything you order will be taken care of." This time they let Standing leave.

"Every felt that violated before? Moving our things? I'm not happy with that." Mac says to the other two.

Horatio nods, "it looks like we have no choice in the matter, let's go check out this hotel." He places his sunglasses upon his nose and leads the way out of the room.

...

"Wow!" Is all that keeps coming out of Calleigh's mouth as she looks around her spacious room. Turning, she tips the bellhop, who bows his head to her in thanks and leaves. She closes the door, "wow!" She breathes again. There's a knock at her door. She opens it with a huge grin, "Hey Natalia, come on in" she pulls the door back.

"I'm right next door, these room's are, WOW!" Natalia says.

"I agree" smiles Calleigh. "Are you unpacking yet?" She asks her.

"Not yet, I wanted to see if your room was as great as mine." Natalia replies.

Calleigh walks around the spacious room, she notices an envelope on the desk. She picks it up, it has her name on the front of it. She waves it at Natalia "you got one of these?" She enquires.

"I don't know, I was so excited I had to come and find you, what does it say?"

Calleigh turns the envelope over and rips it open. She reads it out loud to Natalia. "You're presence is requested in the Longworth meeting room at eight o clock this evening. Dress code, smart casual," she shrugs at Natalia, "there's also a map, directing us to the room."

"Cool!" Natalia replies, "I should go see if I've got one, or if it's just a private meeting for you" she laughs.

Just then there's a knock on the door. Natalia, who's hand was already on the doorknob looks back at Calleigh, who nods at her to open it.

"Eric? Ryan?" Natalia says to the two guys stood at the door. The two of them are stretching to try to see around the door.

Calleigh walks over, opens the door right up and says "aren't the rooms wonderful?"

Both Eric and Ryan's jaws drop open, they look at each other.

"Our room's are not like this" Ryan complains.

Eric nods in agreement, "they're great, but not like this," he turns to Natalia, "Nat, yours like this too?" He asks her.

"Sure is," she smiles.

The two men look at each other, then back at the girls. "Coop, and Valera are still unpacking. Did you two get the invitations too?" Ryan asks.

"I did, Natalia's just going to check her room now." Calleigh tells them.

"I wonder who's going to be there?" Eric says.

"I can't wait to find out." Calleigh replies.

...

Across the hotel, "Danny, will you please stop jumping on that bed!?" Lindsay says crossly.

"Ah come on Lindsay, this is fun" he laughs in response.

"You know Danny, she's right" comes the reasoning voice of Sheldon Hawkes, "I don't want to be the one to tell Mac that one of us broke the bed in a hotel like this!"

Danny slowly stops, "fair enough" he concedes.

"How long does Stella take to unpack? What did she bring her whole wardrobe?" Moans Flack sighing. The New York crew are all waiting for Stella so they can discuss the invitations they'd all found in their respective rooms.

"These rooms are pretty nice." says Danny appreciatively.

Lindsay nods in agreement, "and free" she smiles. "Tell me again, why are we using my room to meet in?" She asks wonderingly.

"Because you unpacked first, and your room is still perfectly tidy, now if we went to danny's..." Hawkes trails off.

"Yeah yeah!" Danny laughs, punching Hawkes gently on the arm.

"Hey, no fighting you two!" Comes Adam's voice across the room. They all look at each other quizzically. Adam looks up, "Ok, you guys weren't really fighting were you?" They all laugh.

"Ahh get back to your game Adam!" Flack tells him. Adam looks at him condescendingly.

"It's not a game, I'm working on a highly important program" he says.

"Sure, sure" comes the reply.

"Hey, let me in" the voice behind the door says, just as there's a knock.

Lindsay gets up to open the door. "I'm ready!" Stella announces.

"At last!" Flack says enthusiastically! Stella looks at him and Flack seems to shrink back. She laughs, "now about these invitations."

...

"o0o0o0o a limo!!" Exclaims Greg, opening the door. "For Moi?" He says in a silly voice.

"Just get in Greg" demands Nick. Greg smiles at him and climbs in.

"I want Catherine to sit next to me" he shouts, shoving Nick as he tries to sit down.

Nick throws him a look, Greg had been a nightmare all the way over on the plane. "Fine, Catherine, he's yours" he says.

Catherine groans, "thanks Nick!"

Greg smiles.

"I think we only got a limousine so they could fit us all in one vehicle" says Warrick, climbing in behind Catherine, followed closely by Jim Brass, Archie, Mandy, Bobby and Hodges. Once they were all in the driver closes the door and takes his place in the driving seat.

"I wonder where we're staying" Greg says bouncing annoyingly in his seat.

Catherine puts her hand on his knee, "sit still," she tells him in a stern, but friendly voice. Greg stops bouncing.

"I'm not telling Grissom Sara couldn't make it." Greg says, serious for the first time since they started their journey.

Nick looks at him, "I'll do it, I'm sure he'll understand, things come up," he finishes.

Catherine smiles at Nick, "or I'll do it, whatever."

The driver pulls open the dividing window, "I have to give you these" he says, passing some envelopes through the gap. Warrick takes them and passes them out. They each open their own envelope.

Greg lets out a whoop, "PARTAY!" he yells.

"It doesn't say it's a party Greg" Nick says.

"It's an invite to something, and it can't be just us going... a gathering is a party if you make it one" he grins excitedly. The others shake their heads, quietly laughing, it's been a while since they'd seen this side of Greg, though annoying, it was actually quite nice.

"They haven't given us much warning" Mandy pipes up, looking at the time.

"Maybe it's all the time they have" Hodges replies to her, "I'm sure you have enough time to," he thinks carefully, "beautify yourself."

Mandy looks at him. Hodges returns the look with a big grin.

The others all laugh!

**_They're gonna meet... Hope you enjoy... review pretty please, with a cherry on top!_**


	5. Chapter 5

**_Disclaimer: The usual... not mine, blah blah, please don't sue, all that jazz!_**

**_Not so long this time :o) enjoy._**

Chapter 5

Eight o' clock arrives, Mac, Grissom and Horatio are already in the Longworth meeting room, awaiting the arrival of their guys. They start to arrive in dribs and drabs, they're sent to get a drink, when everyone arrived they could all be introduced. Finally, with Dan Cooper running through the door at quarter past eight, everyone was there. Firstly, Horatio took Mac and Grissom to meet his team. Mac had already met with a couple of the Miami crew as he'd been involved with a case that had taken him to Miami. Grissom was introduced to everyone as he had never been involved in person with a case, though some of his team had travelled to Miami previously. Then Mac took the other two to meet his team, once again, Horatio had already met Stella, Flack and Hawkes, though Hawkes was still an M.E when they had met on a prior case, Grissom politely shook hands with them all. Then Grissom took them to meet his team, Horatio knew Catherine, and Warrick from their trip to Miami, but shook hands with the others as he was introduced.

Mac met with all of them politely and said "I hope we can get name badges, all these new faces!"

"Can we all come over here please?" Horatio calls, "Dr. Grissom has some things we need to discuss before we all have too much to drink!"

Everyone gathers around, perching on the edge of tables that have been pushed to the walls and dragging chairs from the back of the room. Grissom stands up and clears his throat.

"Basically I'd like to explain to you all why we are here, I know you'll have briefly been informed but you will need to be filled in on all of the details. We've been called to help with an open case, with multiple unsolved murders, all of which are linked in some way to the Government. We will all be working together as a team, you may be asked to work with someone you've not worked with before, as well as people you are familiar with. You report mainly to your own lab supervisor, but if necessary, any one of us, and in return we have to report to Jonathan Standing, who head of the FBI CSI section. We may also be required to work with some FBI CSI's and lab techs. There will be daily meetings at the FBI lab where we can share all of the day's news. At this moment there are three cases for us to work on, with a lot of evidence to re-process. We are hoping the number will not rise. Any questions?"

They all look at each other, no one pipes up with any questions.

Mac steps forward, "you all have temporary FBI I.D cards, if needs be your warrant cards can also be used for identification, but you must have you FBI cards on you at all times, to enter the lab, and any crime scene." He passes the wedge of cards to Stella, who sifts through, finds her and passes them on.

Horatio smiles, "Now enjoy yourselves, mingle, introduce yourselves, tomorrow the work starts!"

Everyone breaks away, they keep to themselves for a bit, but gradually they start to mix, the drinks flowing.

"Eventually they should all know each other by the end of this evening" Horatio says to Mac and Grissom. Grissom's phone trills. He pulls out his cell and answers.

"Grissom"

"You with Taylor and Caine?" Inquires the voice.

"Yes Jonathan" Grissom replies.

"Put me on loudspeaker" he demands.

Grissom presses the loudspeaker function button on his phone, "It's Standing" he tells the other two, he wants us all." They gather around the phone.

**_More soon. Reviews please :o) If you don't wanna review that's fine, but please keep on reading!_**


	6. Chapter 6

**_Disclaimer: Still not mine..._**

**_Quite long, first fresh case... wooo hoooo!_**

Chapter 6

Grissom cuts off the loudspeaker function from his cell.

"Looks like someone has to leave" he says to Mac and Horatio, looking around the room he was trying to assess who had been drinking. He hadn't, but he'd been pushed between pillar and post today already. His eyes settle on Greg, horsing around, he was holding a glass of orange juice, perfect, "Greg" he calls. Greg looks over, points to himself, and heads over. Grissom rolls his eyes. "Either of you want to volunteer, or choose someone to accompany Greg?" He asks Horatio and Mac.

"I've got someone" Horatio tells him. "Mr. Wolfe," he calls, Ryan walks over, "you're heading out to a scene" he answers the raised eyebrows. "You and young Mr Sanders here are taking our first fresh case"

Ryan nods "Sure H," he says placing his glass on a nearby table. "Where are we off to?" He turns to Greg and offers his hand. Greg takes it, looks at it and bows to kiss it, Ryan pulls it away sharply and says "Ryan Wolfe, you can call me Ryan" slightly shocked. Greg laughs.

"Greg Sanders, Greg." He offers his hand, Ryan takes it and they shake.

Ryan turns to the three head CSI's and asks "So, what have we got and where?"

...

Ryan and Greg leave the meeting room, an aide to the President had been found lying in Lafayette Park, stabbed three times. Normally the death would've been treated as any other, but with recent events it had been reported to Jonathan Standing, as requested, due to the fact there were close connections to the Government. They approach one of the cars Standing had provided. Ryan gets in the driver's side and Greg jumps into the passenger seat. As per their instructions they head out. The park is opposite the White House, the victim had probably been walking home. Pulling up outside, Ryan and Greg exit the car, Ryan goes to the trunk of the car. All of the supplied cars had CSI kits in them so that anyone who needed one would have one available. He pulls the kit out, and places it on the sidewalk. He closes the trunk. "Ready?" He asks Greg.

"I'm always ready" replies Greg grinning. They turn and enter the park.

...

The scene wasn't hard to find, even at nine pm there was a lot of people milling around and the yellow tape had drawn a small crowd. As they approach the scene they hear footsteps behind them, someone puts their hand on Greg's shoulder, "Mac said I should come too, you need a detective, but I couldn't catch up with you before you left. Don Flack" he introduces himself. Greg and Ryan nod to Flack in greeting. They all show their newly issued cards to the officer watching over the scene and are allowed under the tape. The body was lying awkwardly, but it looked as though it was posed. The photographer from the FBI lab had already arrived and was taking photos. As they near the body, he stands and introduces himself "Matthew Seaward" he states, shaking each hand in turn, they introduce themselves. "Jonathan said that some of you guys would be getting dispatched, welcome to DC." Ryan looks at the body, walks around careful to not tread on anything, the photographer had set up lights to illuminate the scene, as a forensic photographer he'd known not to disturb anything and to be careful where he stepped.

"The M.E's cleared the body to be moved, I'm just finishing up with the pictures and then the scene is all yours. It's just like the others"

Greg looks at him, "the others?" he asks

Matthew looks at Greg, "the other murders, the bodies all looked similar to that" he said pointing at the position of the body.

"We haven't had time to review the other cases yet, we've only been here a few hours" Ryan tells him. Matthew stepped back, finished with his photography.

"I'll process this film and send the pictures to the lab for the files" he tells them, and vacates the scene. The morgue assistants cross his path on their way to collect the body, also careful to not disturb anything. They load the body into a bodybag and transport it back to their vehicle.

Greg and Ryan get to work processing the scene, they both collect evidence, but it's not easy as there's plenty of trash that could belong to anyone, but had to be collected as anything could be evidence in the case. Greg notices a cigarette end behind a nearby tree, he calls to Ryan "hey, maybe this is something, it's the only cigarette end around here, maybe it's our murderer's"

Ryan joins him, "Greg there's footprints here, maybe you stumbled onto where the perp was lying in wait."

Greg grins.

"Um, Detective Flack" Ryan starts, "could you pass me the kit over please." Flack brings the kit over, Ryan takes out what he needs and makes an impression of two of the footprints, one of the left foot, one of the right. "Great work Greg" he says smiling and slapping him on the back.

"Now you need to find something of worth" teases Greg.

They both keep scouring the area, "hey Ryan," Greg starts, "why does Lieutenant Caine call you Mr. Wolfe?" He asks.

"I was wondering that too" pipes up Flack, "what's that all about?"

Ryan looks at them, "I really don't have a clue!" He replies. And they all laugh. Ryan suddenly stops, the other two look at him, "keep still Greg" he says, and heads over towards him. Greg stands completely still, not wanting to disturb whatever it was Ryan had seen. Ryan drops down to one knee next to Greg, "the dirt is disturbed right here," he points, "but nowhere else," he swipes at the dirt, something glints. Greg joins him "What is it?" he enquires.

Ryan reaches into the kit and pulls out a small brush, he swishes at the dirt and uncovers a knife.

"Who hangs around a crime scene and buries the weapon?" Flack says incredulously.

"Maybe it's not the weapon" Ryan says in reply, "but there's only one way to find out. Is that of worth Greg?!" Ryan asks, grinning as he walks away.

**_Originally this wasn't the case I wanted Ryan and Greg to work, but demand to read about them working together was high, so I decided to give them the first new case. Please review!_**


	7. Chapter 7

**_Disclaimer: no real famous CSI characters are mine..._**

**_Short chapter again...Sorry!_**

Chapter 7

Back at the hotel, the gathering was starting to disperse. They all had to meet at the FBI headquarters by eight a.m. No one wanted to be late. Horatio said his good nights first and headed off to his suite, all three of the lab heads had been issued with a suite rather than a room. Arriving at his, Horatio pulls out his cell and dials. "Mr Wolfe?"

Ryan reports back what they've found. "And working with Mr. Sanders?" Horatio enquires

"It's fine" comes the cautious reply.

"He's with you?" Horatio asks in response.

"Yes" laughs Ryan, "We have to drop this stuff off at the lab, then we'll be back at the hotel, everyone still at the party?"

Horatio tells him it's all over, and it wasn't a party, it was a casual meeting so that everyone could meet. They hang up.

Ryan tells Flack and Greg that the 'gathering' was over, Greg groaned "I always miss all the fun!" He exclaims.

"I very much doubt that." Ryan replies with a smile.

"I'm tired anyway," Flack starts, "been a long day."

They nod in agreement, it sure had.

...

Approaching the FBI headquarters lab, they come to a stop by a security hut, Ryan winds down the window and shows his I.D card, Flack and Greg also produce theirs. The security guy gets out a clip board, writes down some details, checks his watch and then waves them through the now raised barrier.

Ryan drives on through, then turns to the others "anyone see any signs to tell us which way to go?"

They both look out of the windows, shaking their heads, "at this rate we'll still be here in the morning...won't have to worry about being late." Flack sighs.

"Over there!" Greg suddenly yells, "sorry, didn't mean to shout, I can see a site map."

Ryan drives across to the map and Greg jumps out. Studies the map, climbs back in and says "this way" pointing to the left. Ryan follows Greg's directions to a car parking area and pulls up.

"Want me to run and sign it in?" Ryan asks glancing at the other two.

"Sure" they both reply, not about to argue.

Ryan enters the building and follows the directions to the evidence sign in area, shows his I.D, then signs the items in, using a form supplied to him by the locker supervisor. "You guys didn't take long to jump in." The supervisor comments to Ryan.

"It's what we're here for" Ryan replies. He checks the form, checks the evidence stickers, then places them on the right bags. He then checks them again, then signs the form. They evidence guy looks at him.

"Sure you've checked it properly fella?" He asks

Ryan looks at him, "if anything is wrong, or goes missing, I know it's not down to me if I check it enough times!" He tells him, trying not to sound cross. He couldn't help it...

He returns to the car, gets in and says "Time for bed?"

The others nod in agreement.

**Thanks to any readers, and also for any reviews. More soon xx**


	8. Chapter 8

**_Disclaimer: I don't own any CSI characters._**

**_Longer chapter this time...enjoy :o)_**

Chapter 8

By eight a.m the room set aside at the FBI headquarters was full of CSI's, lab tech's and Detectives. The hubbub of conversation was hushed when a tall gentleman walked in. He raised his hands to quieten them down, which was a defunct action as a hush had fallen the minute he had appeared.

"I am Jonathan Standing" he introduces himself. Horatio and Mac share a smile. "I am in sole charge of this investigation, your superiors will be reporting to me every day after their daily meetings with you, to discuss advancements that may have occurred. I hope that you can all work together, form a strong team, and also to integrate with some hand picked staff of my own." A few people file in confidently behind him. "Joseph Mendels CSI third class," Joseph nods, "Marcus Stretford and Lilly Drew also third class," they step forwards in turn, "Kevin Peters trace evidence, Max Homer fingerprinting, and D.N.A" They both wave geekily. "You have brought along two audio visual specialists, so I didn't think we needed another." Jonathan states. Everyone starts to look around. Had he finished? Jonathan takes a deep breath, obviously not..."I'd like all of the laboratory Technicians to follow with Kevin and Max to the laboratory, to be given a full tour and to be shown your stations. CSI's, and Detectives, if you'd like to follow me, that is all except," he takes out a piece of paper, reads it and looks up, "Ryan Wolfe, Gregory Sanders, and Donald Flack Jnr."

Flack flinches, "Don's fine."

"And just Greg" Greg adds swiftly.

Jonathan looks at them, "if you'd like to follow CSI Mendels, he'll take you to a lay out room where your evidence has been documented and filed for you. You are to continue with your investigation."

Ryan looks at the others "documented for us? One less job I suppose." Though he didn't look too pleased.

...

The lab rats follow their new comrades out of the room. They walk along a plain white, well lit hall. "Our lab is the busiest in the country," Kevin starts to tell them proudly, "federal cases are of the utmost importance." He smiles around at the following group. Archie elbows Bobby, who stifles a laugh. They fall behind a little.

"What did you think of everyone?" Archie asks him.

Bobby smiles at him, "well if anyone calls me a geek again..." he trails off nodding towards Kevin and Max. Archie grins. "And that blonde gun girl from Miami, WOW!" Bobby sighs. "Beautiful and knows her way around a firearm, my dream girl."

"Don't think you'd get a look in Bobby, you see the way that Latino guy was watching her all of last night?"

"Eric Delko? I didn't notice, but then I guess I wasn't looking at him." Bobby tells Archie.

There's a hissing noise, they both look forward, Mandy is looking at them, "come on guys you're being left behind, you don't want to get lost here!!" They catch up.

...

Valera and Cooper are chatting quietly amongst themselves, Adam Ross joins them, "can I walk with you two?" He asks shyly, "There's loads of the Vegas techs, and I don't want to get stuck with the Federal guys!"

Valera smiles at him, "sure you can, right Dan?" Dan nods.

"So what are you're specialities?" Adam asks them both.

"I'm D.N.A, you?" Valera says.

Adam thinks, "well, mainly trace, but I also work in A/V, and D.N.A if the situation requires it, lets just say my skills are diverse!" He looks at Cooper.

"Audio Visual technician" he replies to the look.

"Cool." Adam smiles.

...

Jonathan Standing led the CSI's and Detectives in the opposite direction to the labrats, the hallway they're walking down is practically identical, plain white and well lit.

"These cases are highly confidential, you have all had background checks completed by me, and I trust that your respective supervisors opinion of you is reliable." He continues walking whilst saying all of this. "This is just a brief tour, you will all be given site maps, as the building isn't small and I understand how hard it can be to find your way around a new place."

The CSI's are trying to slyly check out the federal CSI's, everyone was peeking at each other, no one was really listening to Standing at all.

"I'm dividing you into three teams for the time being, there are three active cases, I've had to revise said teams as Wolfe, Sanders and Flack are already on a new case. If, and I repeat if, any new cases arise I will, with your supervisors, decide who takes them on."

They turn a corner. And come face to face with the lab technicians, they had all been going to the same place, just been using a different route. The labrats had been shown all parts of the laboratory, and had been assigned stations where they could work. The federal techs had been proud to show off their workplace.

"Ah, I see we're all back together" Standing states. "Technicians, if you could take your place in your allocated stations, they are already set up with evidence for you to re-examine to get familiar with the cases. Work together, you are now a team." He turns to face the CSI's before speaking this time.

"Your teams are as follows," he once again refers to his piece of paper, "Dr. Grissom, you can take case one with, Jospeh Mendels, Catherine Willows, Danny Messer, and Natalia Boa Vista. Lt. Caine, case two, Lilly Drew, Stella Bonasera, Eric Delko, and Dr. Sheldon Hawkes. Detective Taylor, case three, Marcus Stretford, Warrick Brown, Calleigh Duquesne, Nick Stokes and Lindsay Monroe. Hopefully these teams can gel, any problems find me and I'll reconsider." He looks at them all "Your federal CSI will show you to the lay out rooms we have already prepared, detectives, if you'd follow me." He walks away, Tripp and Brass look at each other, then follow after the FBI man.

The three teams are led through the lab, they can see Archie and Cooper checking out high tech gadgets in the A/V lab, they already have a common interest and look like they are getting on just fine. They wave as the CSI's pass by. Grissom's team take the first room, Mendels is waiting for them, they say their goodbyes and enter the room. Horatio's team take the next room, and Mac's the last. Now the work begins.

...

Ryan, Greg and Flack are in the lay out room set aside for them, their evidence had been logged and sorted properly, Ryan had made sure of that the second he'd entered the room. Greg had sat and watched as he meticulously checked all the pieces they had collected and compared it to the form he had signed the previous night.

"All there?" Greg asks.

Ryan looks up, "yes it is, I don't trust anyone. Nothing personal, but surely they should be able to deal with this without bringing in locals, so I'm a bit wary. I don't want to be set up for anything while I'm here." He tells him.

Greg thinks, "that's very true, but cynical. I suppose I never thought of it that way. I'm glad I've been partnered with you Wolfe, you've got brains."

Flack sniggers, Greg looks at him, "what?"

"The way you said it, sounds like you don't have brains, selling yourself short!" Flack tells him.

Greg thinks about it, and shrugs, "I know what I meant."

Ryan looks at what evidence they had gathered, Greg and Flack join him at the table. "Nothing has been processed, so we have to send all this stuff to D.N.A and trace, which is good, as we can send it to who we want to, not necessarily one of their people." Ryan tells them, picking up the bag with the cigarette in it.

Greg smiles, "that's great for us, as we trust our own people, right Ryan?"

Ryan looks at him, "of course."

"So," Flack starts, "we have the knife, which'll need fingerprinting, and D.N.A checks for the blood, the cigarette, for D.N.A?"

"D.N.A and chemical testing, we can find the brand and other things from the chemicals we find on and in it." Greg tells him.

Ryan smiles, "see, you have got brains." he says to Greg.

"The trash we'll have to sort through to find if it has any relevance at all, and the footprints will need to be measured and photographed" Greg says to Flack, growing in confidence.

"We'll fume the knife ourselves, so Greg do you want to swab the knife to send the blood traces to D.N.A? Make sure you get plenty of swabs, there may be more than one donor" Ryan states.

Greg takes ten swabs, seems like a lot, but he thought, like Ryan said, being thorough might be important right now. "Who do we take the swabs to?" He asks Ryan.

Ryan looks up, thinking, "Valera, we'll take them to Valera. We'll ask her to make sure that Max Homer guy doesn't mess with anything, maybe he'll be busy in fingerprinting with the old stuff."

"Fingerprinting? Mandy won't be happy if he's treading on her toes." Greg says.

Flack was beginning to look bored with all the science geek talk, "what can I do guys?" He asks.

Ryan looks at him, "after we've fumed the knife I thought we could all visit the White House, that's where the vic was coming from, and we need to check out the lady's home. See if there's anything there that could help us understand why someone would want to kill her."

Flack nods, "good action plan Wolfe, so you guys get to fuming and I'll make sure we can get into the White House, and the victims home to investigate." Flack leaves the room.

**_I know it seems very Ryan/Greg/Flack orientated, but it's just because that is the new case, everyone else gets 'screen time' as it progresses!_**

**_Reviews welcome, thanks for any so far, and thanks for reading :o)_**


	9. Chapter 9

**_Disclaimer: The CSI characters aren't mine, any OC's are though._**

**_This chapter is really long compared to the others, people were moaning they were too short..._**

Chapter 9

Greg runs the swabs to Valera, who looks happy to have something to do, she's been exploring but there was only so much nosing around you can do. The other teams were still reading through their cases and so there was no specifics from them yet as to what she needed to re-test.

"Hey, Greg right?" Valera greets him, "how're you finding working with Ryan?"

Greg nods, "Ryan's fine, needs to lighten up a little, but he's really good at what he does, he makes me a little nervous."

Valera laughs, "he's a good guy, don't be nervous. If you couldn't do your job, you wouldn't be here, remember that."

"Thanks" Greg smiles. "Well these swabs are from a knife which we think is the murder weapon from the park scene. Ryan suggested lots of swabs as there may be multiple donors" Greg explains.

"Sure" Valera agrees, "Ryan's very thorough."

"Well I should be getting back, we're fuming the knife for prints, and then we're going to the White House!" Greg was getting animated.

"Not been there before?" She asked, slightly amused.

Greg shakes his head. "See ya Valera"

"Call me Maxine" she calls as she watches him leave.

...

Greg arrives back to the room to find a note from Ryan on the tabletop, he'd secured them lab space to fume their evidence and had gone on ahead. Greg growled, he was just there! He turns back and makes his way back to the lab area. He was wandering around, pretending he knew where he was going. He waves to Archie in A/V, who waves back but is more interested in what him and that Cooper guy were looking at. Valera gave him a big grin on his way past her window, he smiles back, was he going round in circles?! Then just in front of him he sees Ryan in a glass fronted room.

"Wolfe" he says as he enters the room.

Ryan looks up, and simply points to a lab coat and some goggles.

"Sorry Greg, if I'd have waited the room would've gone"

Greg accepted the apology, though deep down he still felt a little uneasy, still not sure of Wolfe.

Greg puts on the coat and goggles, Ryan already had the fuming tank set up, and the knife on a little pedestal, held in place with clips.

"You wanna do the honours Greg?" he asks.

Greg looks at him, "sure" now slightly ashamed for thinking Ryan was trying to get ahead of him. Greg starts the fuming process. They watch as the tank fills with super-glue induced smoke. They wait until the smoke is almost all clear, and then Greg opens up the hatch and reaches in.

"There's a print Ryan."

They look at the print together. It looks pretty delicate, and neither of them really wanted the responsibility of lifting it. "Ok," Ryan starts, "how about we get the camera, take a series of pictures, then lift the print?"

Greg nods, totally agreeing, "I'm pretty good with the camera, I'll take the pictures" he suggests. Greg realises that the camera he brought with him was in Grissom's care, so went to find Grissom, got his camera, and returned to Ryan.

"If we use my camera, develop them ourselves, check the pictures, nothing can go wrong right?"

"Now you're thinking like me Greg!" Ryan exclaimed. Greg smiles at him.

...

Flack had taken himself off to find out what the protocol was in situations such as this. He needed to ensure entry to the White House for himself, Sanders and Wolfe. In New York he'd ask for a warrant if necessary, but surely working for the Federal lab on a highly sensitive Government connected case they wouldn't want that kind of publicity. He finds Standing, Brass and Tripp were with him. Flack nods to them, they look bored and desperate for an escape route.

Standing had turned as Flack entered the room "ahhh Detective Flack, what can I do for you?"

"um, Mr. Standing" he starts only to be interrupted.

"Jonathan, call me Jonathan."

"Ok, Jonathan, how do we ensure access to the White House to continue with our enquiries? Oh and will there be any problems entering the victim's home address?"

Standing looks at him, like it was the stupidest question he'd ever heard. "You show your I.D cards and they allow you to enter the White House, and of course you can go to the victims home, I'd expect you to do so."

Flack's cheeks flush, trying to contain his anger he replies "I didn't realise the I.D cards held so much weight, I thought best to check the protocol as to not get anything wrong while affiliated with you and your team."

"How gallant!" Standing exclaims.

Flack can't tell if he means it or if he's just being sarcastic.

"So, we show our cards and are allowed access," Flack repeats, "fine" he turns and exits the room, seething. What a rude man.

...

Ryan and Greg, after dropping off their pictures and the carefully lifted print to Mandy in fingerprinting, have returned to the room that contains their case file.

"Mandy didn't look so happy with that Homer guy hanging around." Ryan says to Greg.

"She'll be fine, she can stand up for herself, she keeps Nick in check, anyone that can do that can deal with the feds no worries."

While waiting on Flack, they pack the file up, so it can be safely returned to the evidence locker until they return. Flack enters, visibly angry. Greg and Ryan share a look.

"Flack?" Greg asks.

Flack looks at him, "that Standing guy is so.. so.. oh RUDE!" Flack says with venom. Greg can't help but giggle, Flack looks at him, and starts to smile.

"Ok, guys, apparently we wave our FBI I.D cards and we can enter the White House."

"That seems all too easy!" Ryan says.

"That's all it takes if you are a fed," Flack says, "I've been and found the address of our victim, Dory Graham. So we can go straight there after the White House, you guys ready?"

Greg grabs the boxfile that contains all the trash they collected, Ryan picks up the other one with the paperwork and the shoe-casts.

"This stuff can wait til we get back, but we've got to book it into the locker before we leave." Ryan tells Flack. They head out.

...

Upon arrival at the White House, the three of them flash their badges uneasily, expecting to be turned away. Instead they get asigned their own 'guy' who guides them through some doors.

Once in the next room he introduces himself, "Davey Jennings" he tells them, "I'll be your guide," he chuckles, "what can I do to help you?"

Flack looks at Ryan, then Greg. "We need to see where Dory Graham worked, all of her recent activity needs to be checked out." He tells Davey.

Davey nods, "this way then please gentlemen" he leads them through another door. They walk through an upright metal detector, which of course beeps for all three guys. Their badges are checked again, and their guns removed, then returned once they re-tried the detector. Once all the security issues are dealt with they enter yet another part of the White House, this section buzzing, people walking around, others at terminals with computers, yet more on telephones. Davey leads them to an empty desk, "this is Dory's cubicle" he tells them.

There's a guy sat at an adjoining desk, he looks up as they approach, but quickly returns to his work when they advance upon the cubicle. Ryan takes the seat and switches on the computer, it beeps.

"You'll need a password" the guy opposite says quietly.

"Where can I get it?" Ryan asks.

The guy looks at him, raising an eyebrow "You can't."

Ryan raises his hands in a 'what do you mean?' stance, and looks at Greg.

"Look, I'd love the help, but I can't." comes the whisper.

"Can't or won't?" Greg asks moving closer.

"Can't" the man repeats, looking around, "I really can't"

Flack checks out the guy, "and you are?" He asks.

"Jimmy Pennant, Dory's partner, work partner."

"You two know each other well?" Flack asks, perching on the edge of Jimmy's desk.

Jimmy sighs, "pretty well, we were friends."

"When was the last time you saw her?" Greg asks.

"Last night, I was walking her home through Lafayette Park, I got a call on my cell, telling me I needed to go back to my desk, that I'd forgotten something. I checked she'd be ok to walk the rest of the way, it wasn't that dark, she said she'd be fine..."

Ryan was now listening attentively too. "What had you forgotten?"

"Nothing, it was a prank call." Jimmy was shaking his head, tears in is eyes.

They all look at each other, Ryan speaks, "we need the password."

"The only way to get it to go higher" Jimmy tells them.

Flack nods, "then that's what we'll do."

Flack searches to find who he can get the required information from. The guy he needed was on the sixth floor, he tells Ryan and Greg he'll find him, and if necessary, bring him down to them. Greg grabs a chair and drags it over to join Ryan. They wait.

After around twenty minutes Flack re-appears, with a smile on his face. "I've got what you guys need."

He shows them the palm of his hand, written in ink is a user name: Dory1976, Password: JimmyP

Ryan types the information into the computer, it comes alive. The screen flashes up a White House picture. No icons, no folders. Ryan frowns.

He clicks the start tab, nothing, no files, no programme links, nothing.

"Greg, check this out"

Greg takes a look. "That's not right, I think we need to take this terminal back to the lab"

There's a snort, they look at Jimmy, "they are not going to allow that!"

Flack stares at him, "they won't have a choice" he turns and stalks off, cell to his ear.

"So, Jimmy," Ryan starts, "what could be on this computer that might need erasing?"

Jimmy looks around, "look, I can't talk to you, at least not here." He checks over his shoulder again, "maybe we can arrange another time, another place?"

Greg and Ryan share another look, "sure, tomorrow, FBI headquarters, 8 a.m?" Ryan enquires.

Jimmy nods, "I'll be there"

"Ok, unplug it and pack it up, it's coming to the lab, it's been cleared. I love working for the Feds!!" Flack exclaims upon his return.

...

They call for someone to pick up the computer, they don't want to risk leaving it in the car while checking out Dory's place. Greg had been there when Nick's evidence had all been stolen before, that was a risk they didn't want to take. Once the computer had been safely removed and signed over they head off for Dory's apartment. It was in a pretty nice area, a decent building. They force the door, and enter slowly, Flack first with his gun drawn, Ryan follows, his gun out too, Greg last, no gun. They clear all of the rooms, climbing over debris. The apartment had obviously been tossed. Greg starts to take photographs of everything, to document the state of the place before they started their own search for clues.

They take a room each to start, Ryan tells Flack to look for anything out of the ordinary, he didn't even tell Greg what to search for, Greg took that as a compliment and was determined to prove he was on equal par with Wolfe.

Ryan approaches a laptop sat on a small work station, he opens it up and switches it on, no password protection on it, but then why would there be, it was completely blank, just as the one at the White House had been. He looks around the desk and surrounding area. Then he calls out, "Greg, come here a minute."

Greg appears in the doorway, "wussup Ryan?" he asks.

"Where do you keep your computer storage media?"

"By my computer, why?" Greg a little confused.

Ryan turns back to the laptop, "because this laptop has been wiped, and there isn't any storage media anywhere."

Greg joins him. "That's not right Ryan, use your laptop at home, you'd need somewhere to store stuff, surely"

Ryan continues to search around the workstation, Greg returns to the room he's searching, Flack calls that he can't find anything of any interest.

Ryan starts pulling out drawers, they were already empty, but he wanted to check _behind _the drawers to see if anything had fallen down inside. There was nothing.

Greg re-joins him, "nothing" he states, sighing deeply. "We taking the laptop?"

"Sure, Cooper can work wonders on hard drives"

"Archie too"

"Well with the both of them here we should get something" Ryan says.

Flack joins them shaking his head, "nothing there either."

Then Greg sees something... "Ryan"

Ryan looks at him, "Greg?"

"Look," he points, "taped to the bottom of that drawer"

Ryan adjusts his gloves, bends down and peels off the tape that's securing a compact disc to the bottom of the said drawer. He bags the tape, that's evidence as much as the CD itself is.

"Good eye Sanders" Flack says, slapping him on the back.

"What does it say on the label?" Greg asks, noticing the writing.

Ryan takes a closer look, "Jacob Davies" he says, "that's all"

They secure the door to the apartment as they leave, now they have to return to the lab with their new evidence, both computers, sticky tape, and the disc.

Hopefully the tests on their previous evidence have been completed. They still have the trash and footprints to analyze. They were going to be busy boys.

**_More soon! Reviews please :o)_**


	10. Chapter 10

**_Disclaimer: none of them are mine, still..._**

**_It's another quite long chapter, not as long as the last one though! Enjoy!!_**

Chapter 10

In Grissom's room, the team have started to work together pretty well, they've divided the case file between pairs, Joseph Mendels and Natalia had taken the first half of the file, Catherine and Danny the second half. Grissom was checking through the evidence log related to the case. The evidence was already in the necessary lab, but the technicians needed guidance before carrying out any tests. They had the case of the bodyguard that had been murdered, Marcus Seymore, he used to work for the first family. When the new President had been sworn in he'd been replaced. He was forty-two, and was a special unit bodyguard.

"Grissom, we can work this case, but if we can't compare to the others we can't link any similarities or connections" Catherine says confused.

Grissom takes his glasses off and puts one of the arms in his mouth thoughtfully. "You're right, but I think that's why myself, Lieutenant Caine and Detective Taylor have to meet with Standing at the end of each day" he replies.

Catherine thinks again, "but then that only gives the three of you the chance to make any connections, and don't get me wrong, you guys are very capable, but more heads, more chance of a link surely?"

Grissom nods in agreement. "Sure, but we're all staying together so maybe we can have our own forums in the evening at the hotel. Would that make you feel better?"

Catherine thinks for a minute, then nods, "I think that's a great idea."

...

Horatio's team had gelled very well, Lilly Drew, Stella, Delko and Hawkes were all working together, they had a board on the wall and were brainstorming and putting notes up against the pictures from the files. Horatio smiled, a happy team is a productive team. Although they were taking the case of Daisy Leeman very seriously, they were also having a bit of fun with each other. Daisy Leeman was only twenty-seven when she was found dead in her apartment by her boyfriend. She was training as a secretary in the White House, it seems she was earmarked for a higher internal job.

"Hey H" Eric calls, "this girl was clever, says in her files she graduated college early, like at sixteen."

"You think that has a bearing on the case?" Stella jumps in.

Eric thinks, turns to her and says, "possibly, but hard to tell, we can't compare to the other cases while we are working just this one, it's quite confusing!"

Horatio smiles "I agree Eric"

Hawkes adds his comment, "maybe we can discuss their cases with them later on."

Once again, Horatio nods, pleased with the team players he was allocated.

...

In room three, Mac's team were hard at work. Their victim was an administration asistant working out of the Pentagon, Jacob Davies aged thirty-five. CSI Marcus Stretford was fitting in pretty well with Nick, Warrick, Lindsay and Calleigh, at first they were all getting along just fine.

Mac says, "Marcus, I think we weren't given one of the other cases as the victim is also called Marcus."

Marcus looks up, "well if it makes it easier, call me Marc, everyone else does anyway, well everyone except Jonathan." They all nod, even though the other case wasn't theirs, that would make things easier.

"Hey, Mac" Nick begins, "does this mean we get to go to the Pentagon?"

"We can go anywhere the case leads us Nick" Mac tells him. Nick smiles.

Marc grimaces "well, Penatagon security is high, set to high alert."

Nick looks at him, "can't be that high, Jacob was killed _inside_ the Pentagon"

"That was months ago" Marc frowns, "the alert is higher now"

"Hey guys, we're on the same team remember." Calleigh interrupts.

Mac nods in agreement, "I agree, conflict of opinion is good, gives us more scope; but we do have to get along, so cut each other some slack."

Lindsay says "This case is complicated, a murder _inside_ the Pentagon, we know it's connected to the others, but we can't compare it to them as we can't see the other files!"

"Well, I've seen all of the files. But right now we have to concentrate on what we've been given. Then maybe later we can deal with any connections." Mac tells the room.

"With all due respect Mac, I think if there's similarities they need addressing." Lindsay pipes up.

"And they will be addressed, I, along with Dr. Grissom and Horatio, have to meet with Standing each day to inform him of anything that arises."

"Greg and that Wolfe guy might have a link in their case too." Warrick throws in.

Calleigh looks at him, "RYAN and Greg have to report back too."

"Ok, guys, how about we just see if everyone else wants to meet up at the hotel each evening to discuss the cases?" Says Lindsay, trying to calm the situation.

Nick nods, "I like that idea."

Mac sighs, relieved at the eventual harmony.

...

The day is nearly over and they all meet up in a larger room, the teams mingle back into their usual groups. Ryan, Greg and Flack join the room.

Mac, Horatio and Grissom have to report to Standing in half an hour, and they want to get up to date with the information from the new case. The teams had be familiarising themselves with the 'colder' cases and there hadn't much in the way of advancement. Greg, Ryan and Flack tell them all about the evidence from the scene the night before, that some of it was being processed as they spoke, the fingerprint and the blood samples. They filled them in on the days exploits at the White House, about the two computers they had seized and the disc Greg had spotted, all of which had been given to Archie and Cooper.

"Oh and we have an eight a.m meeting with a," Ryan reads his notes, "Jimmy Pennant, he was our vic's work station partner, very secretive. I think there is more to it, his name was her security password for her work computer."

"Good work gentlemen." Horatio states, nodding proudly at the young team.

Greg beamed. The lab techs appeared just as they finish up their informal report. Archie tells Greg that their A/V evidence has been returned to the locker for safe keeping. Valera and Mandy approach and tell them that their evidence is still pending and will be finished first thing in the morning. The whole group is then dismissed, the three supervisors agree there's no reason for them to hang around waiting for the meeting with Standing to be over.

"Oh I have something I'd like to suggest," Catherine says loudly as people turn to leave, "just while we're all together. I was wondering if, when shift is over you guys all want to meet up at the hotel to discuss the cases. I don't know how we're meant to note any connections between these cases if we're not able to see all of the files. There maybe things that we can't see on their own, but when viewed together makes sense."

"I said that too" Lindsay says, "so yes, I'd like to do that."

Hawkes laughs, "that's exactly what I'd suggested!"

There was a general murmur of approval, so it seemed the decision was made.

...

Mac, Horatio and Grissom arrive at Standing's office and knock.

"Yes?" Comes a voice from within.

Mac grabs the handle and opens the door. "Mr. Standing, we're here for our meeting" he tells the federal guy.

"Come in, come in, call me Jonathan." Standing replies.

Brass and Tripp are still sat in the room, looking like they wanted to die, who knows what they'd been stuck there doing for the last nine hours!!

Grissom looks at them, then back to Jonathan, "can they leave now?" he asks, nodding towards the officers.

"Of course" he smiles, "thank you for your time today, Captain Brass, Sergeant Tripp."

They both get out of their chairs and leave, sighing on their way out of the door.

Grissom, Mac and Horatio all take seats opposite Standing, he finishes typing something on his computer then turns to face them.

"So, update me." He says.

They all tell him how their teams seem to be working together just fine, and although there hasn't been much progress, the analyzing of the cases was going well. Very soon they would be ordering the re-processing of certain pieces of evidence.

"And the new case? How is that little team doing?" Standing asks, a little condescending.

"Very well!" Grissom says slightly indignant.

They tell Jonathan of the advancements, of the computers and the disc. They also tell him there's still a few bits of evidence to be checked through, but it would be got to after Ryan, Greg and Flack had conducted their interview with Jimmy Pennant at eight a.m the following day.

Jonathan dismisses them, seemingly happy with the progress.

...

Once outside of the room Mac says, "I don't know why, but I always walk away from him feeling angry."

Horatio nods, "I know Mac, I know" he places his sunglasses on and leads the way out of the building.

They arrive back at the hotel to discover all of the CSI's, Labrats, and Officers crowded into the meeting room they had used the previous night for their get together.

"I asked at reception, they said it was fine to use this room" Stella tells them as they arrive.

Everyone stopped milling around and grabbed a chair.

"I'm presuming everyone would like some off time tonight, so lets get started" Mac says, pulling up a chair for himself.

The gathering didn't last too long, each team reported about the positioning of their D.B, which was similar, but not exact in each case, including the newest one. There is also similar evidence found in each case, shoe prints, smudges, all things that needed re-processing.

Ryan, Greg and Flack reported on their case, it was the freshest and there was a lot of interest shown. They ended their mini-presentation with the announcement of their morning meeting with the secretive Jimmy Pennant.

A moment after they had finished, Warrick makes a sudden noise, "wait a minute," he says, "what name was on that disc you found in your vic's apartment?"

"Jacob Davies, why?" Flack says.

There's a murmur amongst the members of the group investigating the case of the Pentagon administration asistant...his name was Jacob Davies...

**_Hope everyone is enjoying it and wants more... reviews greatly appreciated!_**


	11. Chapter 11

**_Disclaimer: I don't own any CSI characters, though I like using them in my stories :o)_**

**_Another long chapter._**

Chapter Eleven.

Totally refreshed by the previous evening's news, they were all keen on returning to their cases and hopefully getting some headway. Visiting crime scenes and re-analysing where top of the agenda. Ryan, Greg and Flack were psyched up for their meeting with Jimmy Pennant, and couldn't wait to hear what he had to tell them, and hoped he also knew of Jacob Davies. As soon as the three of them arrived they checked to see if he'd arrived as scheduled, but he hadn't.

"It's still early," Flack says, checking his watch, "we said eight, it's a quarter to, we're eager!"

Greg nods, "it is exciting though, he sounded like he knew something, don't you think?" He asks.

Ryan agrees, Jimmy had sounded like he'd known something very important, but Ryan was also worried about why he hadn't wanted to share the information the day before.

Time passes by, still no Jimmy.

"I'm going to call the White House and get put through to his extension, maybe he forgot." Ryan tells the other two, grabbing his phone.

"Hello, yes I wonder if you could. I would like to be put through to Mr. Pennant's extension please."

The voice the other end replies, "I'll try for you now sir."

The line rings, and rings, and rings. The voice the other end re-appears, "There's no answer sir, did you want to try again later or leave a message?"

Ryan sighs, "is there anyway you can check if he showed up for work this morning?"

"Well, I'm not sure I'm allowed to do that sir, may I ask who you are and what this is concerning?"

"I'm CSI Ryan Wolfe, I was at the White House yesterday, I'm sure there's a log you can check for confirmation. It's regarding a meeting that Mr. Pennant was supposed to be attending this morning, he was due here over an hour ago now."

There's a sigh at the other end, "one moment please" there's music.

"I'm on hold..." he tells a curious Greg and Flack.

"Mr. Wolfe?"

"I'm still here!"

"Ok," the voice chuckles, "sorry about that, I've checked and confirmed your status. I also checked the log for this morning, Mr. Pennant hasn't turned in today. There's been no call either, but it happens sometimes. I hope this answers your question."

"It does, but it doesn't really help any. But thank you."

"Anything else I can help you with today Mr. Wolfe?"

"No that's all, thank you again." He hangs up.

Ryan turns to the other two, "he's a no show!"

Flack looks at him, "you want me to track him down?"

"Well, sure, me and Greg have a lot of other evidence to sift through and analyse, so if you can see if you can find our Jimmy anywhere that'd help. Thanks."

...

Mac's team were mulling over the information about Jacob Davies they had unexpectedly received at the hotel get together. It may only be a disc, but it was yet another connection, this time to the new case.

"The worrying thing is, how much are we missing viewing these cases separately?" Calleigh asks the group, "I know Greg and Ryan said they'd clue us in as soon as the A/V guys can decode the encryption, but maybe there's so much more."

Warrick nods, "I agree, this is a silly way to be working." He's perched on the edge of a table.

Nick flicks open a copy of the file, "right now, this is how we've been told to work, so we have to get on with it, I say we head out to the Pentagon, check out the scene." He looks to Mac for confirmation.

Mac nods "great suggestion CSI Stokes, I have already got clearance for us all to go today, and have arranged cars, it takes just over ten minutes to drive there."

"You got clearance?" Marc asks, incredulously, now looking at Mac with a new respect.

"Of course he did," Lindsay smiles, "it's what he does."

"If they want us to make this work, they have to give us access to everything we need, that includes the crime scene, the evidence isn't always clear until you see it in context." Mac tells them all.

Just as he finishes his sentence the door is knocked, and opened. It's Max Homer, the FBI lab tech, "Mr. Standing requests everyone's presence in Dr. Grissom's team's room." He's gone as soon as he appeared. They look at each other, then head for the door.

...

Obviously the last team to be called upon, they join everyone else, except Ryan, Greg and Flack, in Grissom's room. Jonathan Standing is at the front of the room.

"Ahh, and here's the rest of you," he states pompously, "now we're all here I have terrible news. There's been another body discovered. It is believed to be someone who worked at the White House, the body had a White House access card in it's coat pocket. As it is, once again, someone connected to the government in some way it has been passed to me. The corpse is still in situ, it was discovered two hours ago, but as you can appreciate it has only just been identified as a case for this taskforce. The scene has been cleared by the Medical Examiner, but the body has not been moved so that the investigators I choose can see it as it lies. The morgue assistants will move the body upon your instruction. We need speed and accuracy, the blue line of the metro which services the whole South Eastern section of D.C is badly affected as the cadaver was spotted alongside the track between the Arlington Cemetery and the Pentagon. I have made my choice as to who I would like to take this case," he checks his note book, the one he always seems to have on his person, "Catherine Willows, I'd like you to take lead on this, take with you Warrick Brown, and Eric Delko. Also Detective Sergeant Frank Tripp will accompany you. Any questions?" He asks, looking around the room. No one comes forward or looks like they might say anything.

"Ok then, lets get going" Standing bellows, clapping his hands together.

Everyone disperses, Eric walks across the room to join Cath and Warrick.

"Looks like it's us then" he smiles. They leave the room, Tripp follows.

...

Greg and Ryan, unaware of the development, are sifting through the trash they'd picked up in the park.

"This is a nightmare" Greg says, wrinkling his nose. "Can't we take a break from this? Check to see if our results are in? Plus we need to analyse the footprint cast, and that doesn't smell..."

Ryan smiles at him, the trash did seem endless, and to be honest he could do with a break from sorting rubbish. "Sure Greg, lets take a look at the cast, then see if the prints or blood have yielded anything."

Greg pulls the cast out of the evidence box, and the pair of them head to find which room contains the right database. They must have looked lost as Kevin Peters evacuated his lab to ask what they were looking for. They explained what they wanted and Peters accompanied them to the correct room. He didn't stick around.

Greg closed the door after him, and looked at the equipment, they could work it all out, he was sure.

Between them they eventually managed to scan the cast, and get the program to search. They took a seat each while they waited, Greg's chair is on wheels and soon enough he's pushing himself from wall to wall in boredom. He glances at Ryan to see if he's going to say anything, then much to his surprise Wolfe starts spinning in circles, "Bored Ryan?" Greg asks, laughing. Ryan joins in, then they both stop abruptly as the computer beeps.

They move over to the screen, "Nike Air Max? People still wear them?!" Greg exclaims.

"Apparently so Greg, apparently so," Ryan muses, "doesn't really help us much now, but once we have a suspect we can use it." Greg nods in agreement.

Picking up their printout and the cast they exit the room and head over to find out if Valera had had any luck with the blood. Valera looked hyped up and ready to go. They enter the room and she flashes Greg a huge smile "Hey!" She says to him enthusiastically.

Greg smiles bemused and looks at Ryan,

"Hey Valera" Ryan says, trying to get her attention.

"Oh, Hi Ryan"

"Are the blood results in yet?" He asks her.

She grabs some paper off the desktop, "sure they are, I ran them through some data bases too. The bulk of your blood belonged to your victim, Dory Graham," she pauses for effect, "but one sample belonged to someone else."

Ryan and Greg look at each other..."any hits?" Ryan asks impatiently.

Valera smiles, "of course, Liam Johns, aged twenty-four, recently released from prison, good behaviour."

"Do you still have his profile open" Greg asks motioning to the computer screen.

Valera follows his gaze to the monitor, "no, but I can get it up again" she tells him, moving over to the keyboard. They follow her over to take a look.

Greg reads out loud, "Liam Johns..., good behaviour..., previous is...breaking and entering with asault. Big jump to murder don't you think?"

Ryan tilts his head, "I suppose, and good behaviour, why would you murder someone just a month after being released for good behaviour?"

"It's a mystery!" Greg says in a funny voice. Ryan shakes his head, he looks up as he sees something out of the corner of his eye, it's Flack.

Flack enters the room, "I can't find your guy anywhere, I called at his house, no answer, checked the White House again, nothing, I don't really know where else to look."

"It's ok, we got a hit on the blood, we're off to see Mandy next, see if she got anything from the fingerprint. Hopefully it'll match our blood and we can make an arrest" Ryan tells him.

Flack looks impressed.

"What a team!" Greg exclaims.

...

Cath, Warrick, Eric and Tripp use the metro, they had gotten on at Metro Centre, and alighted at Arlington Cemetery, someone was waiting for them.

"Hi, I'm guiding you down the tracks to the scene" the uniformed person says, "stay close."

They follow the guy down the dark tunnel like space, using flashlights to see. Eric and Warrick are carrying the CSI kits, Catherine walking ahead with Tripp and their guide.

"Who found the body?" she asks.

The man turns to look at her, "a passenger spotted it from a window, reported it." He says simply.

A good way down the tracks they come to a stop, they can see flashes up ahead, Matthew Seaward was once again photographing the body.

"Hey!" Warrick calls.

Matthew looks up, "Hi," he says, and pulls out his I.D card.

Warrick hands it back after inspecting it, and introduces himself, then Catherine, Tripp and finally Eric.

"I met a couple of your guys two nights back, in Lafayette Park," he tells them, "how's that investigation coming?"

Catherine answers, "we're working separate cases, but last we heard they had a solid lead, a meeting this morning with someone which was expected to help them out"

Matthew nods, "cool, anyway, back to your D.B, posed, like the others, but similar, not the same..." he trails off. "Well, I'm finished here, I'll process the photo's and have the sent for the file" he leaves through a doorway in the tunnel wall.

"Where does that lead?" Eric asks their guide.

"Up top" he's told.

"Up top" Tripp echoes, "why did we need to walk through from the station?"

The guy looks at him, "simpler for you, it's not easy to find the entrance from above ground."

Cath takes the lead, "fan out, process, log everything!"

Tripp moves over to the side to keep out of the way, he finds a crevice in the wall and takes a seat.

...

Greg looks through the window, he can see Mandy, her cheeks puffed out. He knocks on the door, she pulls it open and looks relieved to see him stood there. She rolls her eyes and flicks her head back. Behind her Max Homer is re-organising a file. Greg smiles.

"Hey Mandy, any news on our prints?" Ryan asks, following Greg into the room.

"Sure" she pulls the file from Max's hands. Opens it up and finds the right page, "Um... a Liam..."

"Johns" Greg and Ryan chorus.

Mandy looks a little deflated. "It's ok Mandy, it's perfect, the print matches some blood from the knife" Greg tells her.

Flack rubs his hands together, "let's go make our arrest."

...

Careful not to disturb any evidence, Eric, Catherine and Warrick are studying the area around where the body had been. They'd authorised the morgue assistants to remove the body.

Eric has spotted something and calls the others over, "I've got a footprint" he points it out.

Warrick gets what he needs out of one of the kits, and takes a cast, "Hey Delko, what happened to that guy?"

Delko stands up, puzzled, "what guy?"

Catherine looks at Warrick.

"The guy from Miami, funny guy, um..."

"Speedle? Was that his name?" Catherine asks.

"That's the one." Warrick agrees. They look at Eric.

He takes a deep breath, "he, um, died. A few years back, on duty, he was shot" Eric's voice breaks up.

"Hey, I'm sorry man, I, well, we didn't know" Warrick says straightening up.

Catherine places her hand on his back, "Yeah, I'm sorry, he was a good guy."

Eric nods,"Thanks, I still miss him."

"Hey Guys!" Comes a shout, it's Tripp. "There's something on the wall over here." Grateful for the distraction, they all go to where Tripp's voice had come from.

Catherine breaks out some swabs and takes some samples, Eric takes a close look. "Hey, I think it's like a trail..." he follows the line. "It leads to the door" he tells them, pointing to the door they'd noticed earlier.

Catherine turns to their guide once again, "how many people have used this door since the body was discovered?" she asks him.

"Not many, um, your photographer, the medical examiner, me once, um that's all."

Catherine looks slightly annoyed, but glad that not so many people had passed through.

Eric already at the door, opens it up. Warrick and Catherine join him. "Careful now, remember a few people have passed through, but anything could be from our killer." Catherine says.

"What's that?" Warrick asks, pointing to something in a corner.

Eric approaches the corner, he bends down and with gloved hands picks up a hypodermic needle. "It's a syringe" he tells them, Catherine opens a bag for him and he pops it in.

They take the stairs up to the surface, and find nothing else of any interest. Warrick bounds back down to tell Tripp and the guide that they were done down below and were going back to headquarters. On land they were now not far from the Pentagon, so they decide to walk that direction and get the Metro back.

...

Back at headquarters they take the room next to the one Greg and Ryan are using, they check out the evidence they've collected, the trace, the shoe print and the needle.

"The needle will need to be checked for prints on the outside, D.N.A on the tip, and inside for any indication of what it contained." Catherine states.

Before they can get any further, Warrick's phone rings, he answers and it's the morgue. They have an I.D on the body.

"Shoot!" Warrick tells the guy on the phone.

"Uhhhh, it's a Mr. James Pennant. Hope that helps." he hangs up.

Eric looks at Warrick's stunned face, "what is it?" he asks.

"We have a name..."

"Yes?" Catherine asks.

"James Pennant" Warrick says.

"James Pennant? You think that's Jimmy Pennant?!" Eric exclaims.

"I have a feeling that yes, it is Jimmy Pennant."

**_more connections... hmmm... reviews please!_**


	12. Chapter 12

**_Disclaimer: none of the csi characters belong to little old me, I hope you like what I'm doing with them though!!_**

**_This is a loooooooooooooooong (ish) chapter._**

Chapter twelve

Back in Horatio's room, the team are pushing on with the investigation into Marcus Seymore's death, the report states he was asphyxiated in his sleep in his own home, only to be discovered when his workmate arrived and noticed his front door open. Horatio and Grissom had swapped cases as Horatio was very interested in the case involving the bodyguard.

"He was a big guy Horatio" Hawkes observes, looking at a photograph of the smiling man.

Horatio looks up from his sheet of paper, "he was Sheldon, and what do you conclude from that?"

"Well, he was asphyxiated, so surely it was either someone he knew and trusted, or another large, or strong person." Hawkes answers to the question.

Stella nods, "I agree, but he was a highly trained bodyguard, charged with protecting the most powerful man in the world and his family, surely he would've fought back some, there's no evidence of any sort of struggle."

Lilly jumps in, "maybe he was subdued some other way, drugged or something first to knock him out."

"There's nothing in the file to suggest that, actually, to even say they followed that avenue" Stella notes, flicking through the pages, "nice Lilly, nice!"

Lilly smiles, "maybe that's the first thing we can get re-tested, or, well, tested, the bloods that were taken."

Horatio nods, "Lilly, could you do the honours and inform Valera what we'd like her to do with our vic's blood."

...

Lilly leaves to go to see Valera, she knocks politely before entering the lab, Valera is nowhere to be seen. Just as she turns to leave Valera re-enters the room.

"Hey," she says a little out of breath, "Lilly right?"

Lilly smiles, "you must be Valera, Horatio asked me to come and give you instruction on a piece of evidence that's here." She pauses, "you ok? You seem a little out of breath."

"Yeah, I'm fine, just had to catch up with Ryan and Greg, their case is breaking and I'd forgotten to give them some results, but then, they also forgot to ask for them!"

"Their case going well?" Lilly asks.

"Very well, in fact they are going with Detective Flack to make an arrest right now."

"That's fast work! What results did they forget?" Lilly curious now, but not even knowing why.

"They asked for D.N.A checks on a cigarette butt they found in the park. It didn't match the guy they're going to arrest, plus there were no hits in the database. I've sent it on to trace to be analyzed, there might be other clues within it."

"Cool!" Lilly says, then shakes her head, "back to why I'm here," she laughs, "there's some bloods here from our case, Marcus Seymore. Can you run them to see if there is anything odd in them, anything that shouldn't be there?"

Valera nods, "of course."

"If the procedure was carried out before, it wasn't documented, and if it wasn't, it should've been..." Lilly trails off as Greg, Ryan and Flack walk past the window.

"Who's that guy again?" she asks, pointing at Flack.

Valera smiles, "that's Detective Flack from New York, cute huh?!"

Lilly just nods.

...

Ryan, Greg and Flack head out to visit the address that the computer had offered up for Liam Johns. Luckily for them there was a car available to them, no one else had headed anywhere just yet. Flack decided he was driving, Greg got relegated to the back seat by Ryan.

"Hey, does this mean I have to sit back here with the murderer? Oh great! Why do I have to sit back here, Ryan, Ryan... are you ignoring me? Ryan?"

Ryan turns to face him, "no, Greg, you don't have to sit back there with our Mr. Johns," he pauses,

Greg jumps in, "Oh good, for a moment there..."

Ryan cuts him off, "You could just walk back." He turns back around.

Greg goes to argue again, then changes his mind, if that's how he wants to play it fine...

...

"We should let them know" Catherine says, in regards to their victim being someone Greg, Ryan and Flack were waiting to talk to.

"Yeah, want me to find them?" Eric asks.

Catherine looks at Warrick, who nods, "sure."

Eric leaves, he knocks next door, when there's no reply he opens the door and looks in, empty. He wanders up the corridor, into the lab space. He sees that Federal CSI girl, Lilly something leave Valera's lab. Valera, he thinks, I'll see if she's seen them.

...

Back in the room, Catherine and Warrick lay out the evidence they've collected from the crime scene onto the table. The trace swabs, the footprint cast, and the syringe.

"Where to start!" Warrick says, with a sigh.

Catherine picks up the swabs, "first of all lets get these to Hodges, he can find out what that substance is. The syringe, hmmm, you wanna print it? Then we can get it to D.N.A for testing, then trace for what's inside." She takes a breath as she finishes.

"The cast?" Warrick asks.

Catherine thinks, "maybe Eric can deal with that."

Warrick gathers up all of the evidence into a labelled cardboard box, and follows Catherine out of the room.

...

"Hey Valera, how're you doing?" Eric asks.

Valera looks up with a smile, "great, but please don't tell me you have something else for me to do right now?"

"You been busy?"

"Well not particularly, but it seems that I have had plenty to do, and now I have some blood work to get done for Horatio."

Eric nods, "well I don't have anything for you, just wondered if you'd seen Ryan and the others around?"

Valera tells him about their case breaking, and how they had gone to make an arrest.

"Typical," Eric begins, "well if you see them before me, can you tell them I have some important information please?"

"Sure Eric, no problem. Hey, is that who you're working with?" Valera points out of the window.

Eric looks up, "yeah, I'd better go, see ya Valera" he says placing his hand on her shoulder, "take it easy."

...

"Hey guys, wait up!" Eric calls out to Catherine and Warrick.

They stop and wait, "there you are." Warrick answers.

"Eric, can you take the cast and see what you can find out from it, we're going to drop the trace to Hodges, and then fingerprint the syringe, that way we can run the fingerprints while it's being tested for D.N.A and then ultimately, take it to trace to see what was inside." Catherine asks him.

Eric nods, "sure, no problem." He takes the cast from Warrick, "oh and by the way, Ryan, Greg and Detective Flack have gone to make an arrest, it's possible it's the same guy, this could all be wrapped up by dinner!"

Catherine smiles, "let's hope so, it'll make our job easier, in fact, it'd make everyone's job easier!"

"What did you guys do with Tripp?" Eric asks.

Warrick and Catherine smile at each other, "sent him to get coffee, cops can always find coffee!!"

Eric joins in their laughter.

...

In the A/V lab, Cooper and Archie are trying their hardest to reclaim anything from the two computer's hardrives. They'd already put in hours trying to decipher the encryption on the disc that Greg had found.

"Cooper, this is near on impossible, these hard drives were wiped by someone who knew what they were doing!!"

Cooper agrees, "And that encryption is something I've never seen before! I'm sure we'll get through it, but man it's making my brain hurt."

"Someone somewhere must know how to decode it, otherwise they'd be no point to the disc, surely?!" Archie says questioningly.

Cooper makes a, I suppose so face, "but then, maybe only the vic was meant to be able to see what was on it."

They both get back to the computers, "I just hope no one else has computers like this in their cases!" Cooper exclaims.

...

Catherine heads off to find Hodges, whilst Warrick pops in on Mandy, he has all intentions of checking for, and lifting any prints himself, but if he's already with her, she can run any he might get through the system right away.

"Hey Mandy!"

"Warrick!" she greets him, "what's happening man?"

Warrick chuckles, "I've got to see if there's any prints on this thing," he waves the bag containing the syringe, "and thought this is the best place to do it."

"It sure is," she replies, "and you've come at a good time, the Homer guy has finally decided to leave me in peace, don't know where he's gone, but away from me is all I need to know."

"Pain in the Ass?"

"Well, not really, but it feels like I'm being watched all of the time, I've checked through all of the evidence that's been left here, and the logs, and all of the information that I've been left with. It just feels like he's looking over my shoulder."

Warrick smiles at her, no one likes being monitored.

...

"Hodges!" Catheine yells.

Hodges jumps, he'd been leaning on the counter-top staring into space. "Catherine, what may I do for you?"

"Bored?" She asks him.

Hodges laughs, "Of course, for a _busy _lab, I've not had a lot to do!"

Catherine looks at him, "just you wait until they want everything re-tested for those other cases, plus anything new that turns up, you won't be bored then!"

"I've read all of the literature supplied, and there wasn't a lot of trace evidence collected in any of the cases. The cigarette butt from Greg's case just showed what brand they were nothing else. Oh well, I'm sure I can keep myself amused. What was it you wanted done?"

Catherine takes out the swabs, "I need to know what this is, where it came from, I want to know anything and everything about it."

Hodges takes the evidence from her, "Your wish is my command!"

Catherine laughs, then leaves.

...

Eric finds the lab that Ryan and Greg had used earlier to identify their cast. He set everything up, just as they had done before him.

"Ok then, lets see..."

He fiddles around and finally works out how to use the scanner to put the details of the cast into the computer.

Once in the computer he runs the copy through the database.

"Nike Air Max? People still wear those?" He asks himself. Then shakes his head. He decides to run a comparison match up, just in case.

It brought up one match, Ryan's case..."Interesting." he says, once more to himself. "I think I should go let Catherine and Warrick know, and I need to stop talking to myself!" He laughs.

...

Eric finds Warrick in the fingerprint lab, he introduces himself to Mandy, who is already running the print Warrick got off the syringe's plastic casing. "Want me to pop that to Valera for D.N.A retrieval, then off to, Hodges is it? For the trace inside?" Eric asks him.

"Sure, knock yourself out."

Eric takes the re-bagged syringe to Valera, and explains what's needed.

"Eric, you said you didn't have anything for me right now!" She moans.

"Well it's bound to just be the vic's D.N.A anyway, I wouldn't put a rush on it, hey, how about I swab it for you?" He grabs a couple of swabs, takes the samples and pops the lids on the swab cases. He grabs some labels and makes sure they are all marked. "Ok?"

"Thanks Eric" Valera smiles at him.

"You're welcome, now I have to find Hodges, you know him?" Eric asks.

Valera just nods and smiles.

'Oooookay' Eric thinks. "See ya Valera"

"Not too soon Delko, please" she replies.

Eric heads out again, this time he sees Catherine walking towards him, "Hey Eric, how's it going?"

"I've I.D'd the shoe print, it matches the print from the other new case. In fact, when they get back with their suspect, both prints can be checked!"

"Excellent work Eric, where are you going now?"

"Well, Warrick is with Mandy running a print, so I volunteered to take the syringe to D.N.A, which is where I'm coming from, and to trace, which is where I'm headed."

"Hodges is working on our swabs in trace right now, and he's says he's bored, he'll be pleased to see you," Catherine laughs, "third door on your left." She directs him. Then goes to join Warrick.

...

"Hodges?" Eric checks, opening a door.

"Yeah, come on in, Eric Delko right?" Comes the reply from within.

Delko nods.

"What do you have for me Eric Delko?" Hodges asks.

"Eric, or Delko, is just fine. I have a syringe and we need to know what it contained. It was found where we think our perp might have exited the scene. Also, when the vics bloodwork is done we'll know if there's a link."

"Sure" says Hodges, holding out his hand," you CSI's are like buses, nothing for hours then two turn up at once!" Hodges lets out a dry laugh, "Anything else?"

"Um, no, I suppose I'll be off then." Eric says in reply.

"Bye then." Hodges turns his back, waving.

...

Lilly re-enters the room, "I gave Valera the information she needs, she's going to get right to it."

Horatio looks over at her, "thank you Miss Drew," he nods, "anyone else have anything to add?"

"I think the next step should be to visit the crime scene" Stella throws in.

Hawkes agrees with her, "I think that would be the logical way to go."

Horatio adds, "maybe we should also consider re-interviewing the people closest to him, and the ex-president and his family."

There's murmurs of agreement.

"There's just us four left, so I'll take Sheldon with me to re-interview some of the people on this list," he points to the file, "Stella, you and Lilly can go to Mr. Seymore's apartment, see if it's possible something has been missed." He looks around the room, "Let's go!"

"Oh, Lieutenant Caine, I nearly forgot," Lilly interjected, "Ryan, Greg and Detective Flack," she flushed, "have gone to make an arrest in their case, thought you should know."

"Thank you Lilly, now lets get going."

...

Flack knocks the door, hard. "What do I shout?" He asks the other two.

"FBI?" Ryan says wonderingly. He looks at Greg, who nods."

Flack knocks again, "FBI open up! Liam Johns!" He waits a minute and bangs the door again, "this is your last chance, OPEN UP!"

There's still no reply, "stand back" he motions to Ryan and Greg, "oh, and Greg, stay at the rear, you don't carry a weapon."

Greg rolls his eyes, "Ok"

Flack kicks the door in, it flies open. He steps quietly over the threshold, moves slowly into the room. It's empty. There's noise in the next room, a television. He motions for Ryan to go to the left of the doorway, and he takes the right, they look at each other and nod to three. Flack steps quickly but quietly into the room first, Ryan follows right behind. They can see someone on the couch, sat very quietly, Flack's gut lurches, he nods towards the person, Ryan moves closer. There's no movement. Ryan calls, "SIR! FBI!"

The formerly lifeless body jumps out of the seat, "uhhhhhh?!"

"Liam Johns, hands where I can see them!" Flack shouts.

"Ok, ok," comes the sleepy voice, as the guy raises his hands up, "what's going on?"

"Liam Johns?" Flack enquires.

"Yeah, yeah that's me, who are you?"

Greg steps round, "why didn't you answer the door? We banged, man, we yelled!"

"Sleeping pills, I'm having a bout of insomnia, you guys got identification?" Liam asks groggily.

"You guys got him covered?" Greg asks Ryan and Flack.

They nod.

Greg pulls out his I.D card and shows Liam, who takes a close look, but doesn't move.

Flack moves to cuff him, he reads him his rights and explains to him why he's been arrested and in connection with which crime. Liam stays quiet, he doesn't deny anything, he doesn't object at all as they march him back to the car.

"Oh and Ryan, I can't travel in the back with him, I'm unarmed." Greg states at Ryan, and climbs smugly into the front seat.

...

Back in the Fingerprint lab the computer is still running the print searching for a match. Now Eric, Warrick and Catherine are all crowded in there along with Mandy, it's a pretty tight squeeze.

"You'd think a federal lab would have bigger rooms." Warrick commented.

Mandy responds, "I think they do, we kinda got the spare ones, they still have all the other active cases they are dealing with, it's not just us here Warrick." She chuckles.

"I wonder how the arrest is going, hey Mandy, did you see if our print matched the print from the other case?" Eric asks.

"No, you never asked me to!" Mandy says dismayed.

Catherine places a hand on her shoulder, "it's ok, can you try it now for us please?"

"I could do, but if it's not a match it'll start the search all over again, and we've been waiting a while, you sure you want me to do this?"

They all look at each other, "maybe not..." Warrick says.

Just then Flack marches the recently arrested suspect past the room.

"Looks like they got their guy!" Warrick exclaims, "maybe he's our guy too."

Eric realises he needs to let them know about Jimmy Pennant, and about the footprint match between the two cases.

...

Eric steps outside the room and pulls Ryan aside as he goes to pass by. "That your suspect?" He asks.

Ryan nods, "Liam Johns, he's not said anything yet."

"I need to tell you something," Eric starts.

Ryan raises his eyebrow questioningly.

"The guy you were meant to be meeting with this morning, Jimmy Pennant,"

"Yeah..."

"He showed up, dead, he's the victim in our case. As soon as we got the ID I tried to find you guys, but you'd gone to make your arrest."

Ryan sighs, "that guy knew something, I'm sure of it, this stinks."

Eric agrees, "I think so too, also, your crime scene footprint, it matches the one from our crime scene."

"Nick Air Max?" Ryan asks him, smiling a little.

Eric laughs too, "yeah, your guy have any?"

"Funnily enough, no. But he could've disposed of them, we'll check his shoe size. Thanks Delko."

"No problem Wolfe."

Ryan catches up with Flack and Greg and quietly relays the news.

**_Hope people are liking this, or at least wanting to know what's going to happen! Thanks for any reviews, alerts, favourites, etc. More soon. P.S Please review!!_**


	13. Chapter 13

**_Disclaimer: CSI, characters, not mine..._**

**_I think this is possibly the longest chapter so far!_**

Chapter 13

Her phone rings, Catherine picks up, "Willows" she says into the mouthpiece.

"We have your vic's cause of death, it was a lethal injection, we found a puncture wound in the neck. There's very little other trauma that could've caused enough damage to kill him." The voice on the end of the phone tells her.

"Thank you" she says, hanging up.

She turns to Warrick and Eric's enquiring looks, "It was a lethal injection that killed Jimmy Pennant, we need to see if Hodges has identified what was in that syringe."

"We need to go to the White House to check out his work place, and also to his home." Warrick says.

"Maybe we can talk to Ryan and Greg about the White House, they went there for their case, remember our guy worked closely with their victim" Eric suggests following them out of the fingerprint lab, "see you in a bit Mandy" he calls back.

...

They head to the trace lab to check how Hodges is doing with their evidence, the syringe and the swabs.

"Well you guys are impatient!" Hodges exclaims without even turning around.

Eric looks at the other two.

"He's always like this" Warrick tells him, rolling his eyes.

"And don't think I don't know you're rolling your eyes Warrick" Hodges adds.

They all smirk.

"Luckily, I'm good at my job," Hodges says, now turning to face them, "firstly your swabs, did your victim ride a motorcycle?"

"Well, Hodges, we don't know yet, we're off to his house as soon as we're done here with you," Catherine tells him, "why?"

Hodges raises his eyebrows, "well, that's what your trace is from, it's motorcycle oil, you said you wanted everything right Cath? Well this is high end stuff, probably used in a Chopper, or Harley, something like that." The comment was throw away, like he really knew his bikes, Warrick couldn't resist...

"You a motorcycle fan Hodges? Never knew that.."

"Weeeell, not really, I looked it up on the internet, I told you, it's boring here!!"

They all laugh, except Hodges, who stands looking at them with his hands on his hips. "You want your other results?" He sounds slightly indignant.

"Yes please Hodges" Eric says, stifling his giggles.

Hodges turns and picks up another piece of paper, "your syringe contained flunitrazipam, a high concentrate of it."

"Flun... what?" Warrick asks confused.

"Flunitrazipam, a benzodiazipine otherwise known as roofies."

Warrick still looks confused, "can that kill a guy?"

"Sure, normally it's used as a date rape drug. But if you use enough of it, it can kill someone certainly." Hodges tells him.

Catherine puts in, "when the bloods are tested we'll be sure, we'll check to see if Valera has received them from the morgue on our way out."

"Ryan, Greg and Flack will be busy interviewing right now, do you want to go to Jimmy's house, then speak to them about the White House after?" Eric asks.

Catherine nods, "that sounds like a plan, Valera, Mandy, then we need to find Tripp, then off to Jimmy Pennant's place." She looks to the others for confirmation, they nod.

...

Valera is looking a bit flustered when they arrive, "please not more!!"

"No, not more, just thought we'd check in before we headed out, to see how you are doing, and if you received bloods from the morgue yet" Eric tells her.

"Well, I've run the bloods from Horatio's case, I have to take the report to them," she pauses.

Catherine jumps in, "what were you looking for in that case?" she asks.

"The direction was, anything that isn't meant to be there." Valera tells her.

"Was there anything?" Warrick asks, curious.

Valera picks up the read out, "yes, Flunitrazipam..."

"ROOFIES" they all shout together.

"You have got to be kidding me?!" Warrick adds.

"What was their guy's cause of death?" Cath asks.

"Um..." Valera searches around amongst her paperwork, picks up a file, opens it up and scans a few pages, "officially asphyxiation, I'm presuming they thought there was something fishy about it all. Why?"

"We think our guy was killed by a lethal injection containing that exact same drug." Eric answers.

"Anyway, back to your case, I've run the D.N.A from your swabs, it matches your vic."

It was pretty much the result they had expected.

"I also received your bloods, but haven't started them yet, I'll get to it as soon as I drop this file to Horatio."

They leave content with the results and the progress. Next they visit Mandy, she's staring at the computer screen.

"Anything?" Catherine asks her.

She shakes her head, "nothing yet" then she sighs.

"Hang in there!" Warrick tells her.

They leave Mandy waiting for a match.

"Tripp?" Catherine asks Eric.

Eric thinks, "well, you sent him for coffee, my guess is he found it, but he probably also found other people, someone to talk to."

"I was hoping he'd bring us some back!" Catherine said.

"Tripp? You kidding me?" Eric laughs, then pulls out his phone and calls Tripp.

...

In the interrogation Flack takes the lead, "Liam, we know you were involved in this murder. We have your blood and fingerprints on the murder weapon!"

"My lawyer says not to talk" Liam replies, nodding toward the lawyer he had demanded the minute he'd arrived. His counsel just nods in agreement.

Ryan growls, "you don't need to say a word, the evidence speaks for itself."

Much to their anger, Liam starts to laugh, "it doesn't matter anyway, you guys can't touch me!"

They look at each other. "can't touch you?" Greg asks confused.

The lawyer frowns at his defendant..

"Aww man seriously, they can't do a thing."

Flack slams his hands on the table in front of him, "with the evidence we have you'll be charged with murder one!"

"Yeah, yeah, of course...you want to know what I done?! I can tell you. I followed that girl, made a phoney call, got that guy to return back to work, then I stopped her in the park, and well, stabbed her." He shrugs like it means nothing.

His counsel sighs "Please let it be known I advised against this confession"

Liam laughs again, "whatever old man, they can't touch me"

"What do you mean we can't touch you?" Flack bellows again, "we have you here now right?"

"Just you wait!" Liam replies smugly.

Greg stares at him, "so why did you do it? Why her and how did you know how to contact her co-worker?"

Liam shrugs in reply again..."Just did."

"Foot on the table" demands Greg.

"Excuse me?" Liam replies, confused.

"Put, your, foot, on, the, table!" Greg says slowly.

Liam slams his foot onto the table, "Why Mr CSI guy?" He asks mockingly.

Greg ignores him and measures his foot. He looks at Ryan and shakes his head. No match to their footprint, which means no link to Delko's print either.

Exasperated Flack shakes his head, "I'll take him to lock up, we'll file the charges and deal with him in the morning."

...

Horatio and Hawkes arrive at the home of the ex-president, it's a large cream coloured house, with a huge oak wood front door. H pulls the rope hanging down.

"Posh!" Hawkes comments.

Horatio smiles at him.

The door opens, "can I help you sirs?" a well dressed gentleman asks.

They both pull out their ID and show them. "I'd like to speak with Mr. Johnson please."

"This way." The man leads the way into a huge entrance hall with chandeliers hanging from the ceiling and small statues on the stair banisters. "Wait here please."

He returns swiftly and leads the way into a large sitting room, sat on a luxury couch is ex-president of the United States, Mr. Johnson, and his wife Margaret, and their young son Rupert.

Mr. Johnson stands as they enter the room, "how can I help you?" He asks, extending his hand.

Horatio takes his hand and shakes it firmly, and introduces himself and Hawkes.

"We're here regarding the death of Marcus Seymore, we understand he worked for you."

Mr. Johnson sighs, "yes, we knew him, we knew him well. But we've been through all of this before. I don't think my family needs all of this upset."

"Mr. Johnson, this case is still open, and there are still cases ongoing that we believe may be related to his death." Hawkes tells him in his soft reassuring voice.

The ex-president sighs, "what can we do to help?"

"I'd like to speak with your wife and son, and Dr. Hawkes would like to ask you a few questions, if that's alright with you sir?" Horatio answers him.

"Why separately? I don't know if Margaret and Rupert will be okay with that." He looks towards his wife, who in turn looks at her young son.

"I wanna help Mom" Rupert says in reply to her concerned look, "Marcus was always there for me, please."

Mrs. Johnson looks back at her husband, then at Horatio, "the minute he gets upset this is over."

"Understood!" Horatio replies, smiling at the little boy.

...

Hawkes is lead by Mr. Johnson into a side room, he's offered a seat and takes it.

He takes the lead, "How long was Mr. Seymore working for you sir?"

"He more worked_ with_ us than for us, yes he protected us, but he became part of the family. We all worked together to ensure the safety of myself and my family. He was a mentor to Rupert, they adored each other." Mr. Johnson explained expressively.

Hawkes looks at him, "I understand sir, but how long was he working _with _you_?"_

"He joined us when I won my place in office. So he was with us for eight years."

...

Horatio sits opposite Mrs. Johnson and Rupert. He smiles at them, "just a few questions."

Margaret nods in response.

"Ma'am, how long did Mr. Seymore protect you for?"

She sighs, "Officially, eight years, but we've been out of the White House for three years and he was still there for us," she looks at Rupert, "all of us."

"Was he a good bodyguard?"

"The absolute best, I trusted him with my life, and with Rupert's, no questions asked." She says in reply, her voice choking slightly.

Horatio gets out of his seat and kneels in front of Rupert, "hey son, is it okay if I ask you some questions?"

Rupert nods.

Horatio smiles, "how old are you?"

"I was ten three weeks ago" he replies proudly.

"Wow, ten," H replies, "did you have a party?"

Rupert just shakes his head.

Horatio frowns, "why not?"

Rupert looks at him sorrowfully, "Marky wasn't going to be there, I didn't want one."

Mrs. Johnson hugs her son close, she rubs his back. He pulls away, his eyes dry, but sad. "Marky was my friend, he played basketball with me, picked me up from school, and came to all of my little league baseball games. Even after Daddy wasn't the President any more."

"He looked after you?"

"He did, always."

"Alright big man, thank you for your help." Horatio rubs his head, getting back to his feet.

He looks to Mrs. Johnson, "was there anything you can remember from around the time of Mr. Seymore's death?"

"No, nothing. We still saw him all of the time, he was around a lot."

Rupert gets up and grabs Horatio's sleeve. "yes young man?"

"He didn't come to my little league game the week before he was killed."

"Excuse me?"

Rupert looks at him with his big brown eyes, "he never came, the first one that he missed in my whooooole life Mr. Caine."

"And did he tell you why?" Horatio squatting down now to be on Rupert's eye level.

Rupert purses his lips, like he was thinking, "he told me nothing was more important than me, but he still had work to do and something very serious had come up. That maybe the new President would need his help just like my Daddy did. I told him that I understood."

"Thank you Rupert"

...

"Mr. Johnson, is there anything you can remember that was odd around the time of Mr. Seymore's murder?" Hawkes probes.

He thinks before answering, "nothing I can remember, maybe he didn't come around so much, but that happened from time to time, duty calls I suppose."

"I think that's all Mr. Johnson, thank you for your time." Hawkes finishes up.

They rejoin Mrs. Johnson and Rupert in the front room, Hawkes nods to Horatio to tell him he was all finished up.

Horatio straightens up, he nods to first the ex-president, then his wife and finally, gives Rupert a big smile. "Thank you all for your time, and I'm very sorry you had to go through this again."

...

Stella and Lilly arrive at Marcus Seymore's home. A medium sized four roomed apartment, tastefully decorated. The apartment hadn't been re-rented, or sold, it hadn't even been emptied, luckily for the investigation.

"You take the bedroom, I'll start in here." Stella says to Lilly, who nods in reply. Stella searches the room for anything that could shed some light on the investigation, or anything that could've been missed in the previous search. She saw a laptop computer on a small desk and pressed the on button, nothing happened. She checked the wires, plugged in the power cord and tried again. The computer beeped and started to boot. Once fully loaded Stella noted the waste of time...it was blank, no icons, no nothing, she clicked the start button on the desktop, nothing, not even the usual programs that came bundled with a new computer. She shut it down and unplugged it, then placed it in a bag to take with her when they were done looking around. The she searched around the workstation, in the drawers, no media storage. Interesting.

...

Meanwhile Lilly was searching the bedroom, she'd already been through the drawers and closets, looked under the bed, behind the curtains. Nothing of any interest. Stella joins her.

"Anything?" She enquires.

Lilly looks up, "nothing yet, you?"

"Well a blank laptop, and if I understand correctly, there's been a lot of them in these investigations. Oh and no storage media, once again, a re-occurring situation."

Lilly sighs, turns and continues searching around the bed, "wait a minute, what's this?"

Stella joins her, there's some sort of trace on the wall, could be biological, but also maybe not. She grabs a swab and opens it up for Lilly then passes it to her. She takes a sample and places the top carefully on. "There was no mention of this in the search records."

"Great eye Lilly," Stella smiles, "this could be something important!"

...

Horatio and Hawkes visit the ex-Mrs. Seymore. She's inviting and makes sure they are comfortable, she offers them coffee and cookies, which they decline.

"Mrs. Seymore, I'm wondering if you'd mind answering a few questions about your late husband." Horatio asks politely.

"Of course, anything to help, though I've been through all of this before." She sighs.

Hawkes smiles at her, "we're sorry for the intrusion, and for stirring up old memories, but we'd like to know about your husband, and what he was like."

Mrs. Seymore lets out a rueful laugh, "you're asking the wrong person, I mean we were married, sure, on paper. But Marcus, he was married to his job. Spent more time with the people he protected that he did with me. Once he was assigned to President Johnson that was it, it wasn't so bad at first, but once Rupert came along, that was it for our marriage, it was over."

Horatio nods, "I see, so you parted ways. Any hard feelings?"

"None at all, I understood his job came first, and with us not being able to have children, he treated Rupert like his own, he loved that boy."

It seems all they found out was that Marcus Seymore was an upstanding, decent guy with devotion to his job, if not his wife.

"Mrs. Seymore, thank you for your time." Horatio stands to leave.

...

Sat in his prison cell Liam Johns is singing to himself, shouldn't be long and he'd be out of there.

A guard approaches, "Phone call, it's your brother, you've been cleared to take it."

"My brother?" Liam asks, a little confused.

"That's what he says, I can tell him you don't want to talk if you'd rather..."

Liam cuts him off, "I'll take the call!"

The guard leads him to a room, he stays with him, but stands to the side.

"Hello?"

"Liam?"

"Oh it's you. When am I getting out of here?"

"Getting out?"

"You said they couldn't touch me, that if I done this I'd be protected!"

"I said if you done this _right_ they couldn't touch you, _you_ left evidence Liam, that's your call."

"That wasn't part of the deal..."

The phone call was cut off at the other end. Liam slams down the receiver, he turns to the guard.

"Call Detective Flack, tell him I want to talk, I'll tell him everything!"

...

Jimmy Pennant's home was not unlike all the others that had been searched during the investigations. Plenty of up to date technology, all of it devoid of information, completely wiped clean. No storage media, nothing.

"This is all a bit hinky" Tripp says to no one in particular.

Delko looks at him, "I agree Frank, I agree"

"Hinky?" asks Catherine bemused.

Frank looks at her, poker faced, "you know, just not quite right."

"Oh" Catherine nods, but looks at Warrick, who just grins back.

Delko tells them about his visit to Jimmy's garage, "there's no motorcycle, or any sign that Jimmy owned one. Maybe the murderer is the biker?"

Warrick nods in reply.

Catherine's cell phone starts to trill, she answers it. She listens intently and then hangs up.

"Fingerprint finally got a match, not to the suspect in the other case though, but to a Dennis Alverston."

"What do we know about Dennis?" Warrick asks her.

"Mandy says he has previous, but nothing violent, he's been released from a short prison sentence early on good behaviour."

"Looks like we need to find our Mr. Alverston." Tripp states and leads the way to the exit.

Just as they are about to leave, Warrick receives a call on his cell.

"We've got to return to headquarters, Grissom, Horatio and Mac want to have the recap, they have their meeting with Jonathan in an hour. Grissom says Dennis Alverston can wait until the morning."

...

Gathered in a room, everyone gives their new information to the three supervisors. Horatio tells Grissom and Mac about the interviews he and Hawkes had conducted, Stella and Lilly report on the trace discovery and yet another blank laptop. Cath and her guys tell about their case and the new suspect who's print was on the syringe, and the 'hinky' blank laptop they had discovered. Ryan, Greg and Flack fill them in on the details of their arrest and the following interrogation, and how frustrating their suspect was. Just as they were finishing up with their report, Flack's cell rang.

"Flack"

"Detective Flack, I'm calling on behalf of Liam Johns."

"And what does Mr. Johns want?" Flack tries not to sound too agitated.

"He says he wants to talk, took a call from his brother, afterwards he asked for you, said to tell you, he'll tell you everything."

"Well, you tell Mr. Johns he can wait til morning now...I'm done for the day"

Flack hangs up, he tells them all what was said, he finishes with, "that guy deserves a night in a cell, he's arrogant and abrasive."

Once all of the reports are in, they are all dismissed and arrange to meet back at the hotel to discuss the cases amongst themselves. Horatio, Grissom and Mac head to Jonathan's office for the briefing.

...

Jonathan is his usual loud self, annoying and quite condescending. They report all the information to him regarding the days activities, and all of the progress in the cases, new and old. They inform him that one of the cases should be solved in the morning after the arrest by Flack, Greg and Ryan. The evidence unmistakable and damning. The prisoner finally realising and wanting to talk. Jonathan seems pleased with the progress, and shows a lot of interest in the days activities and drinks in Horatio's recollection of his interviews at the Johnson household. After an hour or so, Jonathan dismisses them, with a well done and a see you in the morning!

...

At the hotel the informal meet up flies by, it's been a long day. Everyone tells their news, the progress is discussed and any links between the cases are noted. Cooper and Archie sigh at the mention of more blank laptops.

Mac steps in, "I've decided Adam should join you in A/V, seems he hasn't had much to do."

Everyone looks at Adam, who tries to shrink into the corner.

"He's very adept at the technological side of things and you guys are the most snowed under in these investigations."

Archie and Cooper high five each other, grateful that the work load can now be shared.

...

At the gathering, Catherine grabs Greg, "When you went to the White House, how helpful were they?"

"Hi Greg, how was your day? Fine thanks Catherine, how was yours?" Greg says at her, kind of jovially.

Catherine gives him a stare.

"Not very, we needed a password to get onto our vic's work computer, but it was wiped clean like all the other computers we've come across. Why?"

"Our vic was the guy sharing you vic's workstation, and I didn't want to drag us all over there to be stonewalled."

"They were kinda helpful, but like I said, the computer had been wiped clean." Greg tells her.

Catherine thinks for a while, then says, "I think I'll have them send the computer in, I don't think there's any point in going over there." She decides, "Thanks Greg."

"No problemo!"

They part ways. The group slowly breaks up and everyone goes off to their rooms.

...

Flack wakes with a start. He looks around, his heart beating fast. He realises the noise is his cell phone. He grabs at it in the dark and answers.

"Hello?" he tries not to sound too asleep.

"Detective Flack?" The voice asks.

"Yeah, speaking, who is this, and what do you want at this time of night?" He ask agitated.

"This is the lock-up, I'm phoning to inform you about the status of your prisoner." Says the voice.

"His status? I know his status, he's locked up until I meet with him in the morning." Flack replies, now very confused.

"No sir, there will be no meeting, your suspect has hanged himself, we've just found him dead in his cell."

**A twisty turny story, I hope its not difficult to follow and that it all makes sense...or maybe it'll all make sense in the end...Reviews welcomed and appreciated!**


	14. Chapter 14

**_Disclaimer: The CSI characters aren't mine, OC's are, storylines are (if similar to others it's purely coincidental), um... thinks that's it for now._**

**_Pretty long chapter, poor Flack eh? If only he'd gone to see the guy..._**

Chapter 14

Startled and not really knowing what to do, Flack drags himself out of bed and dresses. He decides that it's important enough to call Mac, and dials his number.

"Urrrrrr Taylor..."

"Mac, it's Don, um, I just received a call, my suspect, Liam Johns has just been found hanged in his cell." Flack explains.

Mac stays silent.

"Mac?"

"Yeah, um... I say call Ryan and Greg, take yourselves to lock up, get them to process the scene."

Flack sighs and hangs up, he'd pulled the _worst _case.

He calls Ryan and Greg and the three of them make their way to lock up where their suspect, well victim's cell was now cordoned off.

Ryan and Greg get to processing the cell, checking around the body and on the floor. While they are searching the medical examiner shows up, they help to lower the body, Liam is declared dead and the body is cleared for them to process his outer garments.

...

Flack speaks to the guards on duty, wanting an explanation, he was tired and cranky.

"So it was just you two on duty right?" He addresses the two guys standing opposite him.

"Sure, me and Benton here." Says the first guard.

"And you are?" Flack asks, noting down the information in his notebook.

"Tom Coldfield"

"Who found Liam?"

Benton jumps in, "I did, I was doing the rounds and he was just hanging there. I'd brought him dinner only three hours before."

"He was okay at dinner time?"

Benton shrugs, "not really, he'd called for you remember, said he wanted to talk. He wasn't happy you wanted to wait til morning."

"Annoyed enough to kill himself?"

"No way" Benton shakes his head, "I was in the bathroom just before I done my rounds, that's why I didn't hear anything, but Coldfield said he didn't hear anything either."

Flack turns to Coldfield, "that right? You never heard anything?"

"That's correct sir."

"Did you _see _anything?" Flack probes.

Coldfield frowns, "like what?"

Flack groans, "anything unusual...a visitor, did you let anyone in?"

"No way!" He grunts, indignant.

Flack's done. He goes to find Ryan and Greg. They haven't found much and are frustrated. The M.E's guys had arrived to move the body and they step aside to let them get at the body.

Just then Ryan tenses, "stand still, everyone."

Everybody stops.

Ryan looks at the floor, "I don't believe it..."

"What is it?" Greg asks moving closer.

"Pass me the camera" Ryan demands urgently.

Greg passes the camera and strains to see what Ryan can see. Once he'd taken the photographs, Ryan points out the footprint he'd spotted in the dust, inside the cell. It was now very familiar.

"Nike Air Max!" Exclaims Greg, "no way!"

They look at Flack, "those guards wearing training shoes?" Ryan asks.

"No, department issue boots."

"They say if anyone had been here?" Greg joins in.

"No, no visitors, I asked that question already."

"Someone's lying, tell them to come in for questioning once their shift is over." Ryan tells Flack.

Flack nods, he hates being lied to...

...

The others all start to arrive at the HQ, refreshed from their night's sleep they're all raring to go. Mac greets his team slightly bleary eyed, and explains about his late night call from Flack.

Lindsay snorts, "I better Flack was impressed with that call!"

"And Greggo!" Nick drops in.

Calleigh looks at them both, "Ryan was probably unaffected...he's kinda like that," she adds shrugging.

Marc Stretford followed the conversation between the CSI's smiling, he'd gotten to really liking this bunch of people.

Picking up one of the files, Mac turns the attention back to their case. The now infamous Jacob Davies, who's name had appeared on the disc recovered from another crime scene.

...

"Today ladies and gentlemen we will finally be visiting the Pentagon" Mac announces, "After all of yesterdays excitement postponing our pre-arranged visit!"

Nick whoops, that's what he's been waiting for!

"After that we will be going to Jacob's home address, he was unmarried, and his home has been left untouched, still awaiting clearance." Mac finished.

They nod in agreement with Mac's plan of action. Nick leaves to find a car for them to use, hoping one of the larger ones was available. Although the metro would take them right there, a car would be a better option.

After a while Nick places a call to Mac's phone and calls the team down to the lot, he'd secured a seven seater car complete with three CSI kits.

...

Arriving at the Pentagon, a journey of a whole twelve minutes across the Potomac River, Nick was trying hard to contain his excitement whilst in the company of the New York supervisor. They show their identification and are led into a side room, Nick glancing around at everything in awe.

A guide arrives and introduces himself. "I've been asked to help you with your enquiries," he shakes Mac's hand, and smiles at the others, "what do you need?"

Mac explains and they are quickly lead to Jacob's workplace.

"This is where he worked, you may speak to anyone here," he points out an empty room, "you can use that room, for privacy."

Mac thanks him, and as the guy goes to leave remembers something, "Excuse me, where's Jacob's computer?"

"His computer?" The guide thinks, "I'd presume it's been disposed of, we had an upgrade not two weeks ago, everything was sent to be recycled."

Mac sighs, typical.

...

Meanwhile Grissom's team had finished with a visit to the White House, Daisy Leeman, their victim worked there. In a different department from Dory and Jimmy. She was being honed for a high flying job, a secretary, expected to work directly with the President himself.

They'd searched her workstation, and asked some questions but the answers gave them no help at all, the computer she worked at had been wiped clean and re-loaded after the last investigators had finished up.

Frustrated Grissom turns to his three subordinates and asks what they'd like to do next.

"I say head straight to her home, the crime scene" Danny says in his strong New York accent.

Natalia nods in agreement, "I second that!"

Joseph Mendels also agrees, "best course of action boss!"

Grissom leads the way to the Metro station, unfortunately there had been no cars available for them when they had left the FBI Headquarters, but the metro is punctual and not so busy outside of rush hour and so they arrive at their destination pretty quickly.

...

Daisy's boyfriend still occupied their small one bedroomed apartment and was quite happy to accommodate them in their investigation.

"It's hard still living here, especially when she died here." He tells the attentive group.

"You never considered moving?" Natalia asks sympathetically.

Jason, the boyfriend replies, "I just can't afford it," he sighs and looks around, "there's good memories too." He shrugs.

Danny smiles at him, "so, Jason, can you tell us how you found her, and where? I know it must be hard, I know you've been through this before."

Jason shrugs once more, "I'll tell it over and over if it helps to find who killed her," he continues, "basically, I came home from work, I didn't expect Daisy to be home, she's never in before me. I put the TV on, got myself a sandwich and sat down. Then I heard Kip, that's our cat, meowing from the bedroom, poor guy had been shut in all day! So I went to open the door to let him out, and that's when I saw her, on the bed. I thought maybe she was just sleeping, she didn't reply, so I checked her pulse, she wasn't sleeping. She was in this funny position, I didn't move her." Jason looked haunted.

They were used to seeing dead bodies, but even if they felt for the victims, they weren't loved ones. They all felt their hearts wrench at Jason's downcast face and hunched shoulders.

Joseph asks if Jason minds if he takes a quick look around, Jason agrees readily. He takes a look at the set out of the apartment, entry points etc.

"The killer must've entered through the door, do you think it was possibly someone she knew?" Joseph questions.

Grissom looks at him, "I agree Joseph, one hundred percent," he turns to Jason, "no sign of struggle?"

"None, they told me she was poisoned, there were no cups or anything in the sink, but they say it was ingested with a soda. They couldn't find any cans or anything."

Joseph, now on a roll asks, "Did Daisy have a desktop computer, or laptop?"

"Yes, I had to sell it, it's not cheap to live here, I only have one income going into the household now!"

Danny touches Jason's arm, "it's fine Jason, don't worry about it."

...

Jacob Davies home was rather large, much too big for one person really, this puzzled Mac, "why would a single guy need such a big house?" he questioned.

"Maybe he had a lot of guests." Nick offered.

They let themselves in with the provided key, the house was so void of life every footstep echoed. Calleigh sighs and shakes her head.

Marc Stretford marches into the house, takes a big sweeping look around. "Wanna split into teams? I'll take upstairs with Lindsay and Nick and you guys can check out down here?"

Mac nods, "fine with me, Calleigh, you take the right half of this floor, I'll take the left."

They split up.

...

Upstairs the home is perfect, plenty of guest bedrooms, all neat and tidy, many with en suite bathrooms. Rooms obviously used as places to gather with couches and small tables were here and there.

Downstairs, there's a few rooms like the ones upstairs with couches and tables, a huge dining room with a table long enough to seat about thirty, a massive kitchen, a couple of bathrooms, and a door which led to a garage.

Entering the garage Mac and Calleigh got a shock! It was like a huge technological centre. Computer screens, hardrives, recorders, and other technology that they didn't even recognise.

"Wow!" Calleigh exclaims, "you think all of this is wiped clean too?"

Mac replies "only if the 'murderer' knew about it all, it's not in the report" open mouthed himself. "I'm calling Adam in to work on this, the other two will have to cope without him."

They hear their names being called.

"In here" Calleigh calls back.

The other three CSI's join them.

"Wow! And I thought what we had to show you was gonna be good!" Nick exclaims

"What have you got Nick?" Mac asks the Texan.

Lindsay answers for him, "a laptop Mac, wiped clean again, and no storage media. That is definitely a pattern right? With all of the cases old and new."

Mac nods, curiouser and curiouser.

...

Flack, Greg and Ryan decide to drop in on the autopsy of Liam Johns, the Medical Examiner was accommodating, and passed them all protective clothing as they entered.

"I'm nearly done gentlemen, I already sent a few samples to be analyzed, the results should be back in soon." The red haired M.E tells them.

He points to the cadaver's neck, "these marks are post mortem and are on top of some deeper bruising, he was already dead when he was hung, he couldn't have done it to himself," he walks around the body, they three younger men watch closely, "there's bruising to his wrists, looks like fingermarks."

"What would your conclusion be?" Flack asks from behind his face mask.

"Pending the results of toxicology, I think he was drugged, manually asphyxiated, then hung to make it look like suicide," he smiles, "I think that is for you guys to prove though right?"

Ryan nods, "and we will prove it!"

Just then Kevin Peters the federal lab guy appears, "I ran the tox screen for you Reuben, it's pretty busy up there right now."

Reuben, the medical examiner takes the print out from Kevin, reads it, raises his eyebrows and hands it off to Greg, who reads it along with Ryan and Flack.

"Flunitrazipam" Greg reads aloud slowly, "that sounds familiar."

Ryan nods, "sure it does, it's roofies, it's what Delko and the others found had killed Jimmy Pennant, their vic."

"And it was used to drug Marcus Seymore the bodyguard that Horatio's team are investigating the death of." Flack says, proud that he remembered something.

"Not enough to kill your victim however, just enough to knock him out." Kevin injects into the conversation.

"Another link, but I still don't feel like we're getting anywhere!"

...

Tripp leads the way to the door of Dennis Alverston's apartment, he knocks, there's no reply. Tripp bangs again, this time accompanying it with a yell, "FBI open up!!" He looks at Eric and whispers, "I love yelling that."

Eric grins back at him.

There's still no response, so Tripp motions for Catherine, Warrick and Eric to stand back, and kicks the door, right by the lock. The door buckles, they enter slowly, guns drawn. Eric pans off into a door on the left hand side, he sees a figure climbing out of the window onto a fire escape. "IN HERE!" he yells, before setting off in pursuit.

Warrick joins him swiftly, Eric is running down the metal steps on the outside of the building taking two, sometimes three at a time. All the time yelling for the guy to stop. Warrick isn't far behind Eric, yelling encouragement for his team mate. As Eric gets to the second to bottom section, he leans over the edge, they're never going to catch the guy, he takes a breath and launches himself off the contraption. He lands with a thump, catching the guy on the shoulder and taking him down with him. Warrick catches up, secures the suspect, then checks on Delko.

"Owww, my ankle!" Delko is grimacing, holding tightly to his joint.

Catherine and Tripp exit from a door on the ground floor.

"What happened?" Catherine asks with concern.

"He had to jump to catch him." Warrick explains.

Tripp helps Delko onto his feet, "we'll drop into the hospital on the way to take this guy in." He motions to the suspect like he's the most disgusting thing he's ever seen.

...

Back at headquarters, Grissom and his team are updating their file with any new information they had gathered that day already.

Natalia decides to take a second read, "Dr. Grissom?"

Grissom looks up, "Natalia?" He responds.

"I'm reading the interviews that were conducted, there's this one guy, um, Dean Fox, he was due to be interviewed, but he just never was."

"Dean Fox? What's his connection with Daisy?"

"I'm not sure, but if his name is here it must have been quite important right?"

"Give him a call, get him to come in."

Natalia calls Dean, he agrees to come in, but couldn't come in until the following afternoon. Natalia agrees a time and reports back.

...

Stella and Lilly enter the trace lab and come face to face with Hodges, "what can I do for you ladies today?" he asks them.

"We had some trace." Stella tells him.

"Oh, the trace from next to the bed of one Marcus Seymore, am I correct?"

They look at each other, "yes that's correct." Lilly tells him.

"Well it was biological, sent it to DNA, they checked it, I was bored, followed up, your results." He hands them a print out.

Stella smiles, "thorough!"

"I aim to please."

They read the print out. Lilly sighs, "Just him, a sneeze, eww!"

Stella laughs, "good eye though Lilly, no one else saw it there."

...

Dennis Alverston is sat opposite Tripp, who is now fuming, his friend and colleague was hurt because of this guy. Eric was lucky, his ankle wasn't broken, but badly sprained and he was now having to use crutches.

"We have a fingerprint of yours at a crime scene, do you have anything to tell us?" Tripp starts slowly.

Alverston doesn't respond.

Warrick slams his hands on the table, "You were let out of prison on good behaviour, you weren't due for any sort of parole, how did that happen?"

Once again, there's no response.

"Come on Dennis, help us to help you," Catherine tries, "there must be something going on, we have evidence that ties you to our crime, you could spare yourself some time inside if you help us out."

Dennis lets out a cynical laugh.

"What does that mean?" Tripp asks angrily.

Alverston looks at him, "I've been on a road trip, for four days, out of town. If what you are talking about happened during that time, it couldn't have been me!"

Warrick wrinkles his brow, "road trip?" He asks, "what car have you got?"

"I don't drive a car, I ride a bike."

Warrick looks at Catherine, his eye sparkling, "Cool, I love bikes, what have you got?"

"Custom made Chopper..." he cuts off at Warrick's smile. "What?"

Warrick leaves the room to make a call to get the motorcycle impounded.

Tripp tries to get his attention back, "Alverston, we want to know why you killed Jimmy Pennant."

"Seriously man, you think I'm going to tell you anything? Look what happened to Liam! No way, lock me up man."

...

Grissom pulls out his phone, he'd been thinking about something for a while now, but decided he needed to run it passed his fellow supervisors. He calls first Mac, then Horatio and asks for them to both meet with him in a private room. They each leave their teams and convene in a room up the hall.

"Dr. Grissom?" Horatio questions once they are all in the room.

"I called you here because I have a huge concern." He looks between the two of them, "I trust that you all have faith in your guys one hundred percent."

Mac and Horatio both nod.

"I think we have a mole in our midst. It seems almost anyone who says they'll come forwards with information is killed."

"You think one of our guys is talking?" Mac asks, shocked.

Grissom shrugs, "we all meet up at the hotel and share information, but we all meet at the end of each day too, the federal CSI's are also present for that. Also the federal lab technicians work alongside ours, maybe they are talking among themselves. I think there's a leak."

"I think it's something we should monitor, but keep to ourselves for now. I don't want to start having people not trust each other, trust is important" Horatio states.

Mac nods in agreement.

Grissom looks at them, "Ok, for now, but one more thing and we're going to have to address it properly and with the rest of the team."

They all agree and leave to get back to work.

**_A mole? Dun dun duuuuuuuuuuuun, or not? Thanks to everyone for reading, and reviewing, and favouriting, and alerting... More reviews welcome...and appreciated whole heartedly!_**


	15. Chapter 15

**_Disclaimer: They still aren't mine, but I think there's a few they should let me have, even if only for a little while..._**

**_Kinda mid-length, not the longest, but not the shortest by far!_**

Chapter 15

Mac's team were perusing the files of Jacob Davies when he returned, he just shook his head at the enquiring look he got from Lindsay, she didn't push it.

"So what have you guys found?" He asks them with a sigh.

"There was no reason he would've been electrocuted where they showed us at the Pentagon," Nick started, "everything was safety checked, it says that here too, this case seems to have so little physical evidence. He was posed too, which also tells us someone was with him when he died."

Mac agreed, they did seem to have the case with the smallest amount of physical evidence. But they did have the bonus of the encrypted disc which could possibly hold the answers to everything, if only the guys could decipher it.

...

Adam slowly opens the door and sticks his head in, "you wanted me Mac?" He asks looking half afraid.

Mac chuckles, "yes Adam, come in."

Adam is briefed on the room they had found, his mouth fell open when they described the technology they had seen to him.

"As you've been in the field before I'm happy to allow you to process this room on your own, I want you to check everything out, let me know if there's any information on there. I'm presuming this could be the core of this whole case!" Mac tells him. Adam heads off excitedly.

...

Mac's cell buzzes, he answers on the second ring, "Taylor."

"Taylor, it's Standing, I'm on my way to you now, everyone who's not on a new case will be convening in your room, it's important."

He hangs up. Mac looks at the phone, then at his little group. "Looks like everyone's coming here."

People start arriving, there's a buzz about the room, maybe the case had broken or something!! Standing arrives, he looks gravely around the room.

"There's been a major incident on the Metro system," he starts, "multiple deaths, right now all of the federal agents and CSI's are going to be tied up for at least today. I'm putting all of you on alert for all new cases, not just ones connected to your cases, if that is okay with you." He motions towards H, Mac and Grissom.

They all nod, of course it's okay!

"Plus, I'd like a quick update now, just in case we don't get to meet this evening, I'm going to be very busy with this disaster."

Mac advises on his team's advancements, the wonderment at the huge house for a single guy, the undiscovered room, and Adam going to check it out.

Horatio tells him he has nothing new to disclose, but informs Jonathan about Liam Johns' death, and it being a murder, not a suicide. He also fills him in on the arrest of Dennis Alverston and his unwillingness to talk.

Grissom gravely reports on Daisy Leeman's case, that the boyfriend had sold her laptop, there was no new evidence, but they had contacted a Dean Fox who was due to be interviewed, but hadn't been as yet. He's due to talk with them the following afternoon.

Jonathan nods his thanks at the update, and heads out, "just be ready for any calls."

...

In the garage Warrick, Catherine and Eric are wearing federal issue overalls while checking over the impounded Chopper.

"This bike is _nice!" _Warrick exclaims appreciatively at the gold and red custom made motorcycle.

He gets a nod of agreement from Delko.

Catherine sighs, "Can we just get this done?"

The boys share a small smile, but get to work. They collect some prints, which they believe will belong to their suspect. They syphon out some oil to get Hodges to compare to the oil from the crime scene. They look up at Catherine.

"What?" She asks, raising her eyebrows.

"You don't wanna join in?" Warrick asks her.

Catherine laughs, "oh you are all done anyway, too late!" She folds her arms.

They shake their heads and laugh in response.

...

Flack, Ryan and Greg are all in the interrogation room with Coldfield and Benton, the prison guards.

"Can this be quick, I'm tired I just worked a twelve hour night shift?!" Coldfield snarls, his arms folded defensively across his chest.

"It'll be as quick as you make it." Flack snaps back. "I don't like being lied to!"

"I never lied about anything," stutters Benton, "I told you everything, I promise."

Ryan looks at the nervous guy, he's still in his uniform, and has huge bags under his eyes. "Tell us from the beginning Mr. Benson"

"Okay, so Liam asked me to ring Detective Flack for him to say he'll talk, I done that. I returned the message from the detective here," he nods towards Flack, "he wasn't happy with waiting until the morning, but I told him tough, he was the criminal."

Ryan raises his eyebrow at him, "and then?" He prompted.

"Well, then he got a bit angry, but calmed down. Um, then half an hour or so later I went to collect the dinners."

"Where do the dinners come from?" Greg jumped in.

"Main block, the kitchen's over there."

"Did you leave the food unattended at all?"

"Nope." He shakes his head to assert the point.

"How do you know who's dinner is who's?" Greg's taken over now.

"They are labelled, we had a guy with an allergy once, lets just say, _everything _is labelled now."

The three acting feds nod.

"So," Benton sensing they want him to continue says, "I delivered the dinners, he was fine then. He was also fine when I collected the rubbish, said he was going to have a sleep."

Flack, Greg and Ryan look at each other, "a sleep? What time was that?" Flack asks.

Benton thinks for a while, "probably around eightish, not much later."

"A bit early no?" Ryan asks him.

"There's nothing else to do in lock up, it's not unusual."

Once more their gazes prompted him to continue, "then I just pottered around like usual for a couple of hours, then decided to take the trash over to the main block, then after I'd finished talking to Jay, the cook, I came back over."

"What time was that?"

"I was back about eleven I suppose. At midnight I do the rounds, I needed the bathroom at around half eleven. So I decided to do my business before my rounds. Then at midnight, I done the rounds, found Liam, and here we are."

...

They were happy with Benton's story, he seemed to be telling the truth, though he was very nervous, sweat pouring from his forehead. Next they turn to Coldfield, "your version?" Flack demands rather than asks, he doesn't like this guy.

"The same as his version." Comes the unhelpful response.

Ryan slams his fists into the table as he stands up, "you didn't go to get the dinners," he bellows, "so how can your version be the same?" He's glaring now, he had the same impression of this guy as Flack did, he wasn't on the up and up, this guy had something to hide.

"Okay, well while _he_ went to get the dinners, I sat at the desk. He took the dinners, I sat at the desk. He cleaned up, I sat at the desk."

Flack was starting to lose his temper, his face was flushing. "So basically, Benton does all of the work and you sit at the desk! Did anyone enter the lock up while Benton wasn't present?"

They all look at him, including Benton.

"No."

"Neither time that he was absent?"

"No, I told you, no one."

Even though they didn't believe him one bit, they had no evidence except the footprint.

"So, can you help explain the footprint_ in _Mr. Johns' cell that didn't belong to you, Benton, or Johns?"

Coldfield shrugs, but won't meet their eyes. They look at Benton, "I swear, I don't know" came his nervous answer.

They had no choice but to let the guards leave. "Don't go too far, okay?"

Benton nods nervously, then shakes his head to indicate he wasn't going anywhere, Coldfield grunts at them.

...

Mac receives a call, he turns to the room, "that was Standing, he's had a call about a new case. Unrelated to ours, but they need someone to go, he asked if Calleigh can go, because it's a gunshot victim, "he faces Calleigh, " and your speciality is ballistics," he says directly to her, "can you grab Danny from Grissom's team, he wants him to go too, along with Det. Brass. Calleigh nods, and after getting the details heads out to get the others and attend the scene.

...

The apartment block is pretty new, the units obviously not cheap. Danny opens the door and motions for Calleigh to enter first.

"Thank you" she says to him smiling.

Brass stays by the door.

The apartment is well furnished, bright, as the light is shining through huge ceiling to floor windows, the curtains are wide open. The walls are light too, the overall effect is making the room look bigger than it actually is. Danny checks out the other rooms, all furnished with high end items, he comes back into the main room that Calleigh is looking over.

"Nothing looks out of place." He tells her with a shrug.

She looks at him, puzzled, "here neither, everything looks, well tidy."

They approach the body, it's a young girl, of probably around twenty two.

"I wish I could afford a place like this at that age." Brass says begrudgingly.

Calleigh looks at him, "it's not like she's gonna get to enjoy it now." She tells him in her southern drawl.

"I guess not.."

Calleigh sighs, "so young." She walks around the body, the girl was wearing brown pants and a beige floral print shirt. She looks like she lay as she fell. Calleigh squats down to take a closer look at the gunshot wound.

"You see something?" Danny asks noticing Calleigh's expression.

"Not really," she looks at Brass, "she been cleared yet?"

"You know, I really don't have a clue, I'll make a call." Brass pulls out his cell and makes a call. The body is clear.

Calleigh rolls her over so she can see the wound better. She looks around the room, "Danny, stand here for me." She gestures to a spot in the room. Danny stands where she points, she stands over the body and looks at Danny, "Move to over there." She points again, but once more shakes her head. "Okay, there's not enough room for anyone to have gotten that shot off. There's no weapon so unless she done it herself and someone was here and removed the weapon, I'm confused!"

Danny sees what she means. The trajectory of the bullet would mean the killer would've had their arm bent in an almost impossible angle to get the shot off. They sigh. Calleigh looks at where the bullet would've come from and her jaw drops. "Look at that!"

Danny turns, "what have you seen?"

Brass joins them.

Where Calleigh is pointing, there's a hole in the wall, a bullethole! "We need to get into that apartment." Calleigh plainly states.

...

Brass knocks on the door, "FBI," he smiles broadly, "open up!"

There's no response. "We can't kick the door in, we haven't got a warrant."

Danny thinks, "I'll get the building officer, they can open the doors right?"

Calleigh nods and Danny runs off. He returns swiftly with a guy carrying a huge ring of keys. He finds the one with the right tag and unlocks the door.

Brass enters ahead of the other two with his gun drawn in caution, "FBI" he yells again for good measure. Calleigh and Danny both have their weapons drawn and follow in behind him. The hole on this side of the wall is surrounded with blood and grey matter.

"Gross!" Is all Danny can mutter.

Calleigh takes in the scene, a guy, in his late thirties, in an expensive suit, lying on the floor. A gun not far from his right hand. Half of his head missing.

"I think we may have a suicide, who managed to take someone else out with him." Calleigh says sadly.

...

"Delivery for a Catherine Willows." A delivery guy tells the front desk. The attendant takes the package, which is heavy, and signs for it. He then calls Catherine to come collect her parcel, he also told her to bring someone to carry it as it was heavy. Warrick arrives alongside her to get her delivery, she opens it to see what it is.

"It's Jimmy Pennant's computer from the White House." She says to Warrick.

"I guess we drop it to Archie and Cooper then right?"

"That's right, they're gonna love us...

**_Kinda mid-length, hope it's not boring you...and that you continue to read. Reviews would be greatly appreciated! Thanks :o)_**

**_I only have one more prepared chapter, though I have been working on this, so updates might not be as regular as they have been. There's drama to come... Sarry xx_**


	16. Chapter 16

_**Disclaimer: I still don't own the CSI characters.**_

**_There's drama and suspense. I hope you guys are still with me, and are getting the connections both subtle and glaring! If not, p.m me and I'll help you out! Sarry xx_**

Chapter 16

Danny takes a closer look at the body, "you think the guy fell this way?" He asks Calleigh, gesturing at the positioning of the body. Calleigh joins him. She takes a closer look, they body did seem to be in an odd position, the medical examiner had returned, not happily, to also clear this body. They were still waiting on the photographer before they moved him though.

"The position looks familiar, don't you think?" Calleigh asks with raised eyebrows.

Danny considers for a minute before responding, "yeah, it does actually. In the case I was working, with Dr. Grissom, the victim was poisoned in her own home, the photos of her were similar."

"Jacob Davies, our guy, he was electrocuted, but his pictures also showed him to be lying in a very similar position, very strange." Calleigh shares information. Just as she finishes her sentence, Matthew Seaward arrives and introduces himself.

"Like the others" he sighs heavily.

Calleigh looks at him, "the pose?"

"Yeah, the pose, never exactly the same, but always similar!"

Matthew snaps away, taking all the required photographs. Once finished up he leaves the scene.

...

Danny and Calleigh put on some gloves and take a look around. The bullet would have to be pulled out of the unfortunate young lady that lived next door, but there could be other evidence. Danny rolls over the dead body to check his pockets for some form of identification. He pulls out a wallet, "Woooaaah!" He exclaims, "this fella must be loaded!"

He shows Calleigh the bundle of hundred dollar bills that were in the wallet. She whistles. He puts it back inside and continues to look to see if there was anything to indicate who this guy is. "Here we go! Our vic is one Dean Fox." Danny tells both Calleigh and the bored looking Jim Brass. Danny suddenly stops, "Dean Fox?" He wrinkles his brow.

"That mean something to you?" Brass asks him.

Danny thinks some more, "yeah, it sure does, Natalia arranged an interview with him for tomorrow afternoon. He was in the notes we have on Daisy Leeman. Due to be interviewed, but for some reason he never was."

"Who knew about the appointment?" Brass asks him.

Danny considers the question, "well, our group, which is Dr. Grissom, myself, Natalia and that Medels guy. But also, we were called to that meeting, and so really everyone knows. Grissom told Jonathan, Mac and Horatio. We were all there."

"I think we need to report this back to HQ, we need to let Natalia know her interview isn't taking place, and I'm sure Dr. Grissom will be interested in hearing about this advancement." Calleigh tells him. Danny nods in reply.

"You found anything else?" Brass asks, looking around the room.

Calleigh shakes her head, "nothing of any interest."

...

Horatio and his team are sat glumly around a table, staring at the files in front of them. They'd re-interviewed, visited crime scenes, tested bloods...granted they'd discovered their victim had been drugged before being killed, and that the drug used connected the death to two of the other cases. One being the very fresh case of Liam Johns. But other than that it felt like they'd hit a dead end. There's no fresh evidence to connect to a killer, and the computer is sat in A/V with the snowed under techs that just couldn't recover anything. And to top it all off, one of the said techs has just been sent to analyze some technology in one of the other cases, so now the A/V team was back down to two. They get to re-reading.

...

After calling Grissom with the bad news of Dean Fox's death, Calleigh, Danny and Brass return to HQ. The information was all that Grissom needed to call another meeting of the supervisors.

Horatio and Mac oblige and once again meet with Grissom.

"We said one more incident, correct?" Grissom asks.

They both nod, "has something happened?" Horatio asks him.

Grissom explains about Dean Fox's untimely death.

"Does suicide count?" Mac enquires.

Grissom looks at him, "don't you think it's a little odd? That the one guy that was meant to be interviewed all of a sudden dies. Like Jimmy Pennant, who was going to tell 'something' that he couldn't tell at the White House. Like Liam Johns, who decided he was going to talk?"

"I'm not disagreeing with you at all Dr. Grissom, just asking a question." Mac replies.

As he finishes, Grissom's cell rings, he excuses himself and answers the call. His face is grave, he nods like the person on the end can see him, he sighs and mumbles a lot. When the call is finished up he turns to the other two, "That was Danny, there's no way it was a suicide. The wound shows that the victim couldn't have shot himself, it's a fabricated scene. Danny also says that the body was posed in a similar manner to pretty much all the other bodies."

Mac and Horatio nod, "we need to call a meeting, and now!" Mac says, "just our guys, no feds."

Horatio gets on to it, and within twenty minutes everyone, except Adam, has assembled in the room.

...

There's a murmuring, amongst the group. They never meet up like this at HQ, only at the hotel. There had to be something up.

"Right, a bit of quiet please." Horatio requests.

Grissom takes a breath and starts to explain. "Lieutenant Caine, Detective Taylor and myself have had a discussion and have come to the conclusion that there must be an informant among us."

There's mutterings again, and a few snorts.

"Well, we know where they are from." Warrick says, aiming a look at the Miami crowd.

"What's that supposed to mean Brown?" Wolfe throws back at him.

"What it says, Wolfe!"

Ryan looks to move forward.

"Warrick!" Grissom's voice rings out loud.

The Vegas guys glare at the Miami team.

"He has a point Gris," Nick starts, "everyone knows they've had problems."

Horatio steps forwards, "we have no problems. Never have."

"I beg to differ, we all know Boa Vista was a federal mole!" Catherine interjects.

Natalia opens her mouth to speak, but Delko gets there first, "If she was a federal mole, why would she be giving the information to the bad guys? Think about it before you say it." He yells in an angry tone.

The New York guys look a little bemused at the confrontation.

"We all know that Cooper likes to talk..." Nick says, "that's how we know about Natalia, he told Archie all about it."

Cooper has the grace to look embarrassed. But Archie also colours for passing on the gossip.

"HEY!" It's Natalia, "can I just say something?" They all turn to look at her. "Yes, I was _investigating _for the FBI, but I only told them good stuff, there was no bad stuff, it was the only way to get the funds for the new Miami-Dade laboratory."

"I've only been talking to Archie, we've been holed up in the A/V lab since we got here, working on that disc and all of the computers you guys keep finding." Cooper adds.

Grissom raises his hands, "can we calm this down? I wasn't indicating it was one of us, I was suggesting it is someone who was already here. So from now on, only report to one of us. I know you work with Lilly, Joseph and Marc, and you can't ignore them, just try to limit what they hear. The same goes for you guys in the lab, avoid telling the federal techs anything. In turn, Horatio, Mac and I are going to only report the basics to Mr. Standing at the end of each day. This was we can hopefully control where the information is going. If of course, people keep dying in this manner, we will have to look closer to home for the mole. Please don't suspect each other. Continue to work together, and hopefully soon these cases will be solved. It's almost the end of the day, finish up what you are doing and head back to the hotel."

The group starts to break up, Eric grudgingly joins Warrick and Catherine as they leave. They had Alverston to investigate. Ryan and Greg both try to gauge how the other is going to react to the situation as they leave, but once Flack joins them the tension disappears.

"That went well!" Mac says sarcastically.

"As well as can be expected." Horatio replies.

...

Walking the hall, Eric, Catherine and Warrick are discussing the earlier interrogation with Dennis Alverston.

"What I'd like to know, is how Alverston knows Liam Johns is dead." Eric says.

Warrick nods, "and I think he knows it wasn't a suicide, how would he know that?"

"Someone's put the frighteners on him is my guess." Catherine adds, "someone really doesn't want him to talk."

...

"I guess we need to put in some over time." Cooper says, breaking the silence between himself and Archie.

Archie looks at him, "I'm sorry Coop," he starts, he looks at his hands, "I was just talking, you know...about stuff."

"Hey, come on man, it's okay. Coulda gotten me in some trouble, but it's fine. Lets just crack on with these computers and the disc."

...

Calleigh and Danny follow Bobby Dawson back to the ballistics lab. Bobby keeps turning and smiling at Calleigh, who reciprocates the smiles bemused. Danny smiles to himself. She is cute, but Delko would go mad if anyone tried anything. Even a fool could see that.

"So," Bobby starts, "the weapon had no prints on it at all, which would suggest a wipe down. I can't find anything in the clip, or the safety, someone knew where we'd look. The striations on the bullet match the test fires from the gun, so this is your murder weapon for sure." He smiles broadly at Calleigh again and steps away from the microscope so she can check out the striations for herself. She steps forwards to take a look, nods in agreement, then offers the microscope to Danny, who also takes a look.

"Thanks Bobby," she smiles, "it's a shame the gun didn't tell us anything else."

"Can you believe that whoever killed Dean to keep him quiet managed to kill that poor innocent girl that lived next door?" Danny asks Calleigh as they head off.

"Innocent people always get caught up in the crossfire Danny."

...

Adam arrives at the house, he lets himself in and finds the door to the 'garage'. He lets out a low whistle at all the technology in front of him. He drops his bag to the floor and grabs his phone, he calls Cooper, who places him on loud speaker as he describes all of the stuff surrounding him. Archie and Cooper oooo and ahhhh over what Adam describes. The he hangs up to get to work. He finds a switch and the screens all light up. The bad guy or guys didn't know about all of this, that was for sure. The mainframe starts to boot. It asks for a password and Adam gets to work to crack the code. After an hour he's taken off his sweater, rolled up his shirt sleeves and sweat is still pouring down his face. Adam is a patient man but his patience is wearing thin. Suddenly the computer beeps, he stands up and punches the air. "YES!" He yells as the technology comes to life in front of his eyes.

Then he hears a bang. He looks around, maybe someone was in the house, he turns towards the door just as he sees something fly in through it, and the door slam shut behind it. There's an explosion and a flash of blinding light. Adam is thrown across the room unconscious.

...

"Did something just come up on your screen?" Cooper asks Archie.

"Yeah!" Archie exclaims. He rolls his chair back to look at Cooper's screen.

Both of the laptops they were looking at had started to boot on their own. "I've never seen anything like this before." Archie tells him.

"Me either..."

The screen in front of Cooper lit up with the words 'mainframe booting'.

"Mainframe booting?"

"All this time we thought the laptops had been wiped clean, what if they're just security protected to only start when directed by a central computer?" Archie says.

"Adam?" Cooper suggests.

"o0o0o0o yeah, let's call him!"

...

Adam's cell starts to ring, it stirs him slightly. He forces his eyes open, but can't see much for the smoke. He can see his cell and starts to crawl towards it, clutching at his bleeding stomach as he tries to reach it. The phone is too close to the flames and the heat keeps him back. The ring dies off, but not because the people the other end hung up, but because the phone has melted to the floor. The door is now his only option. He turns, the door looks unreachable, his pain is immense, and is hindering his progress along the floor. There's another bang as some of the electrics blow. He plasters himself to the floor, then rises again when the noise stops ringing in his ears. He finally reaches the door, only to find it locked. He slides down the wall with his back flush to the surface. The heat is unbearable and his pain unbelievable. There was no escape, and he is slowly bleeding to death.

...

As the tone the other end goes dead, Cooper and Archie look concerned. Then their concern grows as the laptops start showing a mainframe error message on the screens. Cooper tells Archie he's going to see if Mac had left yet, and gets up to leave. He reaches the door, but can't get out.

"The door's locked Archie!"

"Locked? What do you mean it's locked?"

"It's locked, I can't open it!" Cooper is shaking the door handle, pulling it up and down, and pushing and pulling at the door.

"We need to get hold of Mac and fast!"

Archie grabs his cell and dials Mac, who answers on the second ring.

"What do you know Archie?" He asks.

"Me and Cooper are locked in the lab," he rushes, his breathing ragged as he panics, "we can't get hold of Adam, it's a long story, but we think he's at the nerve centre of the whole system, we think it controls all of the laptops."

"Maybe he's just busy, and what do you mean locked in?"

"We decided to put in some over time, I don't think you understand Detective Taylor, his phone rang, then died off. It didn't continue to ring. Our door is locked, we can't get out."

Mac makes a decision, "Stay where you are, I'll send Horatio for you, I'll take some people with me to find Adam." He hangs up.

"Mac's sending Horatio, he's going for Adam." He tells Cooper, who sighs with relief.

...

Adam keeps falling in and out of conciousness, now the smoke inhalation was causing him to hallucinate, sparks keep flying as more and more of the electrics catch on fire. There's nowhere for him to turn and the flames are steadily moving closer. Tears are running down his face, from fear, sadness, and the heat. Once again darkness closes in.

...

Mac turns the car around, he throws his cell at Danny who is riding with him and tells him to get Horatio on the other end. Danny does as instructed and calls Horatio.

"Put him on loudspeaker" Mac demands to a confused Danny.

"Caine" comes the unmistakeable voice.

"Horatio, we have a problem. I need to you to get back to HQ. Cooper and Archie are locked in the A/V laboratory, they think there's a problem with Adam. He's on his own at Davies' house, they can't contact him, and his cell isn't receiving calls."

"I'll be right there. You called for back up?" Horatio asks him.

"No, can you send some?" Mac asks.

Horatio says he'll arrange the back up, the call is ended and they speed off.

...

At the Davies residence Mac instantly heads for the door, he knocks to see if Adam will open it, it swings open. He pulls his gun from his holster and tells Danny to do the same. They enter slowly calling Adam's name. There's no reply. They head off to the kitchen and towards the garage, they can see a small spiral of smoke rising from the small gap under the door. They run to the door, Danny grabs the handle and lets go and takes in a sharp breath, he looks at his hand, it's bright red.

"It's hot in there Mac!" He exclaims, blowing his hand.

"Danny, call the fire department, and put that hand under some water!"

Danny places the call, but makes no move to place his hand in water, not while Adam could be in danger!

"ADAM!" Mac calls through the door, all he can hear is the roar of fire and the crackling noise of electrics alight.

"We can't wait Danny, that door is roasting, stand back!"

Danny moves away from the door, Mac steadies himself and places a huge boot against the door. It doesn't budge. He kicks again, and again...

...

The bangs waken him a little, but not enough for him to react, his skin feels like it's melting and he can barely breathe. Adam is now lying on the floor, unable to move, the flames moving closer and closer. He can hear a voice, 'Mac, he's here.' his brain manages to think, before darkness takes over again.

...

"Danny, get something to take out this door, anything!" Mac yells.

Danny runs off into the house, and returns dragging a statuette. "Will this do?" he asks his supervisor. Mac and Danny lift it between them, Mac counts to three and they swing it at the door.

This time the door groans, "Danny, it's working, again!"

They swing it again, the door almost gives. There's a noise behind them, they turn to see a fire crew with a hose unravelled behind them.

"Once more!" Mac yells and they swing again, the door bursts open and flames lick out. Danny and Mac are thrown back by the heat.

As the first fire officer passes him, Mac tells him Adam is in there and he wants him found first. The officer nods to show he understands.

...

A few minutes later a limp Adam is carried out by a fireman, who places him on the floor by Mac and returns to fight the fire. Mac leans over Adam to see if he can hear him breathing. A paramedic appears behind him and pulls him away. He opens Adam's shirt carefully, the buttons have started to melt to his skin, "he's breathing, but barely" the paramedic tells Mac and Danny. His colleague arrives with a stretcher, and they load Adam gently on.

"We need to get him to the burns section of ICU fast so they can treat him." They strap an oxygen mask to his face and press gauze to his stomach wound.

Mac nods and steps out of their way, "Danny you go with him." he demands, Danny nods and follows out to the ambulance.

He passes Lindsay on the way, who touches his arm. He gives her a small smile, but it doesn't reassure her. "Is he gonna be okay?" She asks, a tear escaping from her eye.

"I don't know Montana, I'll let you know." He pulls away, Hawkes takes hold of Lindsay as she starts to sob.

**_A bit more drama and suspense this time, more soon, am working on it. Please review, they're always welcome, constructive criticism is helpful!_**

**_Thanks to all my readers and reviewers so far, luvs yer :o)_**


	17. Chapter 17

**_Disclaimer: I do not own any csi characters._**

**_Sorry it's been a while to update._**

Chapter 17

Horatio arrives at HQ and goes straight to the A/V lab. The door is locked from the outside, and through the small window he can see Archie and Cooper sat earnestly pressing buttons on keyboards. He turns the key, and the guys spin round in their seats to see who is there.

"H, Adam?" Cooper asks concerned for his new friend.

"I don't know, I came straight here to let you guys out. I'm waiting for a call from Mac."

"Lieutenant Caine, we've been working on the disc, but we can't get any further. We're hoping Adam saw something that may help us decipher it." Archie tells the Miami supervisor.

Horatio's cell rings, he takes the call. When it ends he tells Archie and Cooper to get everything put away, that everyone is needed back at the hotel, and it isn't good news.

...

At the hotel, everyone except Adam and Flack are in the meeting room waiting for Horatio, Cooper and Archie. Lindsay is still crying and the mood is sombre, there's complete silence. Cooper bursts through the door followed closely by Horatio and Archie. He stops dead when he sees Lindsay sobbing.

"No...you've got to be kidding me..." Cooper splutters.

Horatio ushers him into the room and turns to Mac.

"Now everyone is here, I have some terrible news," Mac continues to explain, "there's been an accident, well, I say accident, but it was actually an attempt on Adam's life. Someone threw a small bomb into the room he was in and locked the door."

There's a general gasp. Only the New York team knew about the situation. Mac had asked them to refrain from sharing the information, the others had sensed there was something going on, but were unaware of the enormity of it.

"As it stands, Adam is doing okay, he's still in intensive care, but is stable."

There's a communal sigh of relief at this comment.

"Detective Flack is on twenty four hour guard. If Adam saw anything on that computer, who ever attempted to eradicate him before, may try again," there's nods and murmurs of agreement, "also, and this is going to be hard, I want everyone to act as if Adam's life was taken."

There's a shocked silence, even Lindsay stops crying.

"You want us to what?" Archie asks, echoing what everyone else was thinking.

"For Adam's own safety, and to perhaps draw out who is leaking information."

Danny looks angrily at Mac, "so you want us to go to work and pretend one of our friends is dead? Do you really think anyone will fall for that? Seriously Mac, I for one would be devastated, I don't think I _could _work if he'd died."

Mac sighs, "Danny, I know what you are saying, and I understand, but _you_ also need to understand, for Adam's personal safety, I need you all to do this."

There's a general murmur of agreement, no one was happy with the situation, but they understood the reasoning.

"Also, we are no longer going to work in the groups that Jonathan arranged. From now on, if you aren't on a new case, we come together, one team, a unit." Mac made the speech as if it was the most important thing he's said in his entire life. His passion evident. These cases would be solved.

The solemn group disperses and they all go to bed, praying for sleep.

...

The morning comes too soon for some of the team. For Flack however, it means hope. The doctors had said if Adam made it through the night then his chances of survival were much higher. Flack had slept with his chair back wedged against the door. The nurses knew this and so hadn't checked in on them. Now that he'd moved the chair, the first nurse of the day arrives. She checks Adam's vitals and adjusts a drip.

"He's doing well detective." She smiles at Flack.

He nods sleepily in reply, "that's good!"

"You don't look so well though, would you like a coffee?" She offers.

Flack looks a little surprised, "well sure that'd be nice. You know I can't leave him right?"

The nurse smiles a little smile, "I know, I was offering to bring you one, nothing else."

Flack has the good grace to look slightly embarrassed, he'd read far too much into her innocent offer. "Sorry, I'm a little tired, and concerned for my friend."

The nurse laughs, "it's not like that wouldn't be nice," she grins at him again, "but I am on duty, and so are you I believe."

Flack smiles back at her.

...

They arrive at the Headquarters, there's still a flurry of activity from the federal guys working on the Metro disaster. It's the biggest catastrophe to occur to date on the system. The team take the largest room, and discuss the plan of action. Warrick, Catherine and Eric decide to go to speak to Alverston again. They want to check his foot size against the ever present crime scene print, and to question him further on his knowledge of Liam Johns' death. Calleigh and Danny have a few things to go over, including a cell phone belonging to Dean Fox. Ryan and Greg still have some puzzling to do over Liam Johns' faked suicide. The rest of them plan on checking out the files, to see if new eyes can uncover anything previously missed. Just as they finish the briefing, Lilly Drew, Marc Stretford and Joseph Mendels join them. Mac quietly takes them aside and informs them of Adam's death. They look shocked and give their condolences to the room. The techs take themselves off to their respective labs to continue with any outstanding work there maybe.

...

"Hey, before you guys head out," calls Hodges, "I just have to finish up checking your oil. It'll be five minutes. You want to wait for the result?"

Warrick, Catherine and Eric join Hodges in his room. He takes the samples from the fridge and places it in a machine.

"I started the process last night, but both samples needed to be at the same temperature for me to run the comparison." Hodges tell the waiting CSIs.

There's a beep from the computer and the printer starts to whirl. He leans over and pulls the printout from the machine and passes it over to Catherine.

"It's a match!" She tells the others, "Alverston's Chopper was at the scene."

"Just one more nail in the coffin." Utters Eric.

...

They head out to lock up to once again meet with their suspect. He's moved into an interview room, and the three of them take seats opposite him.

"So, now we have enough evidence to put you away for first degree murder. Do you have anything to say?" Warrick asks, anger evident in his voice.

Alverston shakes his head.

"You'd help yourself by talking to us?" Eric offers.

He sneers, "what can you offer me? Life imprisonment has got to be better than the death penalty."

"Washington DC doesn't have the death penalty." Catherine states, confused.

"I know that. But by talking to you, I'd issue it to myself!"

The three of them glance at each other.

"Can you explain what you mean by that?" Catherine asks him.

Alverston shakes his head, "look at Johns, what happened to him. Check out anyone else that offered to 'talk'. Where did it leave them? Six feet under is where."

"And how do you know all this?" Warrick asks him.

"He told me."

"Who told you?" Warrick leaning in closer now.

Dennis shakes his head again, this time gesturing that he realises what he's just said. "No one, no one at all."

Catherine pulls out a tape measure, "place your foot on the table please."

Dennis places his leg on the tabletop, Catherine measures, and sighs. No match.

...

In the A/V lab, Archie and Cooper are working on the encryption that guarded the disc's secrets. The laptops are placed to one side, their secrets not yielded, but now understood. In the corner of the room, Danny and Calleigh are working on Dean Fox's cell phone. A uniform had discovered it in the hall of his apartment building. The number had been traced and it belonged to their victim. After dusting it for prints and finding nothing, Danny is now dismantling it. Taking out first the battery, then the memory card, and finally the sim. They dust each component and still find nothing. Calleigh turns on the sim card reader and places their card in it. Dean Fox's numbers, text messages, and all calls made and received appear on the screen in front of them.

"Look at that number." Calleigh points, "it reoccurs a lot. It's also the last number dialled."

Danny types the number into a search program. The name Doug Ware comes up on the screen.

"Wanna call him?" He asks Calleigh.

"Sure." She smiles, and picks up the receiver of a nearby phone. Danny watches for her reaction. She's disappointed. "No answer." She tells him crestfallen.

"Okay, well, the call only lasted twelve seconds, means either he left a message, or the conversation was cut short." Danny responds. He turns to the techs behind him, "hey, is there any way we can find out if this last call was answered or if a message was left?"

Cooper readily declares, "sure there is." The disc encryption was driving him mad. He rolls his chair over to the terminal they are using and types in some codes. They hear a phone ring, then an answering message.

"This is Doug Ware. Leave a message."

They look at each other, welcoming...

A nervous voice starts, "Er, um, Doug, eh, um, I think there's more trouble. That guy, he knows, well he knows something. They want me to go in for an interview. What do I do? Oh it's Dean, Dean Fox. Um, call me back." There's a click as the line goes dead.

"Not totally helpful, but not unhelpful. Dean was worried about someone. Also about his pending interview with Natalia. Maybe he wasn't sure what he was allowed to say?" Danny says questioningly.

Calleigh looks puzzled too, "I suppose we need to find this Doug Ware."

...

Meanwhile Greg and Ryan have taken themselves off to sit quietly and discuss their case. It had moved on a lot since they had arrived. After pulling the first fresh case of the murdered young lady, finding the murderer only for him to be murdered in turn, they're pretty disappointed. They still had the footprint connection, and something didn't add up with the lock-up guards.

"There's only one solution to Liam Johns death, either one or both of the guards done it, or they were in some way involved. I just can't see there being any other way." Ryan says to Greg with a sigh.

Greg nods, "I agree, but with neither of them offering any information, what can we do? Plus I don't think Benton had anything to do with it. It's Coldfield I don't trust. There's something about him..."

Ryan agrees. Their trio was down to two and they'd hit a dead end.

...

Mandy in fingerprinting is double checking all the files, making sure she had everything properly arranged. Max Homer appears behind her making her jump.

"Oh, hey Homer!" She exclaims, turning to face him.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you jump. How are you holding up?"

"Sorry?" Mandy had been concentrating and he's caught her off guard.

"The lab guy, Adam, he was killed right, Joseph told me ten minutes ago. It's very sad." He looks at her with compassion, but Mandy thinks she sees something else in his eyes. Maybe suspicion.

"Um, yeah, it is sad," she looks at the floor, "I didn't know him very well, he was from New York, I'm from Vegas. We were just kinda acquaintances." She tells him. "The New York guys are devastated."

"Yeah, I noticed Detective Flack isn't here today."

Mandy looks at him, hoping she can pull off the lie, "He was really good friends with him, he couldn't face work today. Mac told him he didn't need to come in."

"But the others are okay?" Homer enquires.

Mandy is now starting to feel interrogated. "No, they're not okay, but Detective Flack is, well, really sad. What can I say?"

Max nods, "sorry, I didn't mean to question you like this! I was just offering my condolences and got a little curious."

Mandy nods at him, hoping that now he was going to leave. No such luck he takes a seat and watches as she continues to sort through her files.

...

"So anyone got any new information?" Mac asks the room.

Nick looks up from his file. "I've read this file through so many times, but it's only this time that I noticed the documented fingerprint." He gets up and walks over to Mac, he shows him the page he's been reading. "This fingerprint was on the electrical socket at the Pentagon, they ran it through their computer and it came up no match. It seems the investigating team didn't run it through a criminal data base. It's only been confirmed that it belongs to no one working at the Pentagon."

Mac reads through the page, "that's correct, I think we need to get this fingerprint ran and see where that leads. You can run with that Nick. If you need back up, come back and get Lindsay."

...

Nick smiles at Mandy as he enters the fingerprint lab, she nods towards Homer. He notices something in Mandy's eye, and tries to understand what she means.

"Hi CSI Stokes, how are you holding up?"

That's when Nick realises what Mandy was getting at, "I'm doing the best I can Max, the best I can." He turns to face her, "can you run this for me as priority please?"

She takes the print from him, and instantly loads it into the computer. Nick takes the hint and grabs a chair. Homer was obviously creeping Mandy out. Now all he had to do was wait. After a while, Homer, without saying a word, stands and leaves the room.

"That guy is a little weird, and he was asking a lot of questions about Adam. He wanted to know where Flack was. I told him he was close to Adam. I don't know if he believed me, he said the others were here."

Nick looks at her, "you did good Mandy," he smiles, "stick with that."

There's a beep as the computer finds a match to the fingerprint. Mandy walks over to the printer and rips off the sheet that it spits out.

"Alan Green." She reads out to him, before passing him the sheet with the rest of the details on it.

"Thanks" Nick heads off out of the door to report back.

...

"Got a hit!"

Mac looks up, "information?"

"Yeah, I have an address, Alan Green, twenty seven, was released early on good behaviour. Originally in jail for aggravated assault. Want me to go pick him up?"

"Take Lindsay, ask Horatio and Grissom if one of their detectives can come along. I don't want you asking for federal assistance right now."

Nick walks over to speak to Horatio and Grissom. Horatio volunteers Tripp to go along, he looks bored anyway. Nick asks Lindsay to accompany him, just as Mac had requested. They set off to arrest another suspect.

...

Tripp smirks before knocking the door. When he got back to Miami it was going to be hard to shout MDPD, instead of the FBI he'd kinda gotten used to.

"FBI, open up!"

The door opens, much to their collective surprise.

The chain was still attached, "hello?"

"Alan Green?"

"Yes."

"Can you open the door please."

"Can you show some identification?"

They all show their badges and Alan takes off the chain. He waves his hand in a gesture inviting them in. He looks up and down the hall, then closes the door behind himself.

Nick looks at him quizzically, "Are you hiding from someone."

Alan ignores the question, "You arresting me?" He asks instead.

"We are." Tripp answers bluntly.

Alan looks relieved, and nods.

Nick looks at Lindsay, "Mr. Green," once she has his attention she continues, "are you hiding from somebody?"

"Let's just say I'm glad, I need to get out of here."

"Why?"

"Can we just do this?" He almost yells, he jumps as his telephone rings.

His nervousness rubs off on them and they all find themselves startled along with him.

"You gonna answer that?" Nick asks him, his southern drawl sounding irritated.

Alan shakes his head, his eyes wide, "no way."

Nick grabs the receiver, "hello?"

There's a click the other end, the caller hung up.

"Right, lets get out of here." Tripp announces, cuffing their suspect and heading towards the door.

**_More to come, hopefully soon. It's nearing the end... Thanks for any reviews, more appreciated._**


	18. Chapter 18

_**Disclaimer: I do not own any CSI characters. **_

**_The story is coming to a close, not much more to do. Hopefully readers have enjoyed!_**

**_Some shocking stuff..._**

Chapter 18

Nick leads the way followed by Tripp and Green, Lindsay takes up the rear. They head for the car, Green's eyes darting nervously here and there.

"Have you taken something?" Tripp asks him, very aware of the man skittishness.

Green replies with a shake of the head. He continues to look left to right and back again. His nervousness was rubbing off on them, and Lindsay found herself looking around also. Lucky that she looked when she did, otherwise she wouldn't have seen the man aiming the rifle in their direction. Everything felt like it had gone into slow motion as she yells for them all to get to the floor. She draws her weapon on the way down. A shot rings out, there's screams from pedestrians, then running footsteps. Lindsay can't get a clear shot as people have started running from the gunfire. It had echoed and therefore people weren't running from the shot, just all over the place in sheer panic. She looks away from the distant back of the perpetrator, and back to the guys she's working with. Lindsay climbs to her feet, "Frank? Nick? You okay?" She asks fearfully. Frank looks up at her and nods. "Good call!"

"Nick?"

Nick climbs to his knees, "yeah I'm fine, landed hard on my elbow, but yeah, fine."

"Mr. Green?" Lindsay enquires.

He doesn't move. "Alan?" She asks again, kneeling now beside him. She rolls him over. There's a bullet wound in his temple. She checks for his vitals. Then shakes her head at the guys. "Seems he was right to be nervous." She sighs, "I'll call it in."

...

Back at HQ they can't believe the phone call they just received.

"I suppose at least our guys are alright, is that a little selfish?" Mac asks.

Horatio shakes his head, "I totally agree Detective Taylor. I don't think this situation was down to informants either," he glances at Grissom, "this guy knew he was being watched. He knew something or someone was coming for him. I feel we're getting close and someone is getting very nervous."

...

Calleigh and Danny's search for Doug Ware was looking fruitless. They've searched directories, data bases, anywhere they could think of. The A/V guys were busy and didn't have a lot of time to help them out.

"I wonder if Ryan and Greg want to help." Calleigh says to Danny, "I know they could do with a little respite from their case right now. I saw Ryan in the hallway. They're feeling a bit overwhelmed with the lack of direction at the moment."

Danny nods, "sure."

Calleigh calls Ryan and invites them to join herself and Danny. He readily agrees and he and Greg head off to meet with them. They work for hours trying to find any trace of Doug, they know he could be a major player in the whole case. He must be pretty important if Dean Fox had felt the need to call him regarding his interview. Time passes and the day seems like a complete failure as they uncover no new information at all. They receive a call to go to the evening's briefing in the meeting room, and head off disheartened.

...

The atmosphere in the room is tense. Everyone has started to realise they are close to a conclusion, but also that it seemed so far away. They are all aware that they must be close, as the knee jerk reaction of killing Alan Green suggests. They report their news, briefly to the supervisors. A little frustrated that they had no more steady leads. Ryan's demeanour is downcast, and almost angry. He feels he should be doing more. Horatio reassures him that his work rate is first class and that his work would pay off.

Greg asks Ryan if he wants to stay and work on tracking down Doug Ware, "I'll stay late and work with you." He tells his new friend. Worried a little about his frustrations.

Ryan nods and thanks him. Horatio tells them not to stay too late, then he and the other supervisors head to see Jonathan. The rest of the group disperses, Ryan tells Calleigh he'll call if they find anything. She pats his arm, "not too late though Ryan, okay?" She smiles at him, he smiles back. But only a small smile.

...

Mac, Horatio and Grissom report to Standing. This time he seems a little angered by what he calls 'lack of progress'. Mac starts to get angry.

"Lack of progress?" He starts, his tone harsh, "we've been dropped into an already operational case, that was going nowhere, and had other connected murders occur. Our teams have been working their asses off for the federal government and you spout about the 'lack of progress'?"

Jonathan looks slightly taken aback at Mac's outburst. "You have to see my point though." He says, trying to keep his voice level. "The body count has more than doubled since you have been here!"

Mac was fuming. Horatio places a placating hand on his comrades arm.

"Mr. Standing," he starts, this time Jonathan didn't correct him and tell him to call him Jonathan, "I think you need to be more appreciative of what our teams have done, rather than what they haven't. They've uncovered evidence that wasn't even collected before. Analyzed evidence that should never have been left untouched. They've advanced this case greatly. They've become so affected they're offering to stay late. And to top it all off, they lost a friend and colleague last night."

Jonathan looks contrite. He'd totally forgotten Adam had 'died', he hadn't even offered his condolences. "I'm sorry. You are correct. I still had hoped for more progress, but yes, they have been working hard. I'm sorry for your loss Detective Taylor. I think maybe this meeting is over. I'll speak to you all again tomorrow."

The three supervisors file out of the office. They don't speak at all on the journey back to the hotel.

...

Ryan and Greg marvel at the quietness of the HQ's lab at this time of night. Sure there's a night shift, but they're all over the other side of the building. This side had been reserved for their investigation.

"So, Ryan...you okay?" Greg asks him cautiously.

"Yeah, just frustrated at not getting anywhere fast. If I just work a little longer, maybe I'll feel like we done everything that we can. Sorry for keeping you here."

Greg smiles at him, "no worries!" He tells him. They click away at the computer terminals, make some calls. Finally Ryan gets a lead, a smile spreads across his face!

"Persistence does pay off!" He tells Greg.

He grabs his cell to call Calleigh to tell her they had a lead on Doug Ware. There was no answer. He tries Horatio. Once again, no answer. He sighs. "Greg, can you try to call Grissom?"

Greg calls Grissom, there's no answer. He then tries Mac, once again no reply. They try for quite a while, and start to get exasperated.

"They say anything about going out anywhere?" Ryan asks, puzzled.

"I think they were all getting some food, maybe they're in a restaurant where they can't get a signal. We can't go find this guy without telling a supervisor."

Ryan thinks for a while. Then says, "Okay, you go tell Standing, if he's not there, leave him a note. I'll keep trying Horatio, I'll leave a message if I can't get through. This isn't waiting til the morning."

...

Greg sets off to Jonathan's office. His secretary is still working. "Hi!" She exclaims as he approaches, "can I help you?"

"Is Mr. Standing in?" Greg asks with a polite smile.

"No, he's gone out for his evening jog. Headed off about half an hour ago."

"How long does he normally take?" Greg asks her.

"Depends."

Greg sighs, "can I leave a message?"

The secretary pulls out a pad of paper and looks at him enquiringly.

"I'm sorry, I can't tell you. Nothing personal," he sighs again, "can I go in and leave it on his desk?"

The secretary looks a little suspicious, but then agrees. "Don't be long in there!"

...

Greg lets himself into Jonathan's office. He finds a pen and a piece of paper, and starts to write a note. Then he hears a voice. He jumps startled. It's Ryan's voice. He looks around, "Ryan?"

He can still hear him, and it sounds like it's coming from behind a door. Greg cautiously approaches the door and opens it. His mouth falls open. There's an array of screens, on one of them he can see Ryan. Ryan is on his cell, he can hear everything he is saying. "Horatio, this is Wolfe, we've got a lead on the Ware guy and Sanders and myself are going to go pick him up. Call me when you get this message."

Greg is puzzled, he picks up the internal phone and buzzes the one in the room Ryan is in. He watches on the screen as Ryan lifts the receiver to his ear.

"Hello?"

"Ryan."

"Greg?"

"You are not going...oh, my, Ryan..."

Greg has seen something that had shocked him into silence. A footprint, on Jonathan's desk.

"Greg? You okay? Greg?"

Greg didn't answer. He replaces the receiver and heads out of the office in a hurry.

"Where does Mr. Standing go jogging?" He demands an answer from the secretary.

"It depends."

Greg is frustrated, and getting agitated, he raises his voice, "Where does he NORMALLY go jogging."

The secretary looks a little afraid of him, "by the river, down by the river, the lock up storage boxes, that way. Why?"

Greg doesn't answer, he turns and runs. On his way back to Ryan he turns a corner and slams right into him.

"Greg?"

"We need to find Standing, and we need to find him now!"

...

Greg fills Ryan in on the details, the surveillance, with sound. The footprint on the desk. Standing going jogging. It all fit together.

"He knows where this Doug guy is now too, he was listening in. I think Doug Ware is in danger, and Standing was waiting for us to find him for him."

Ryan asks Greg where he thinks they should head to, Greg tells him the river, and Ryan drives that way. Greg tries to call Grissom once again, there's no reply.

"We shouldn't go ahead without back up, we don't know how dangerous this situation is." Greg says.

"Yes we do, it's very dangerous. If the previous cases are anything to go by this guy could already be dead. If we wait for back up and he was alive, and we could've saved him, I couldn't forgive myself."

Greg nods, and continues to make phone calls. He leaves messages on everyone's cell, hoping that one of them would pick up their messages, and soon.

...

They pull up by the storage containers. The road stops.

"On foot from here." Ryan says to Greg, "You okay with this?" He asks him, not wanting to drag him into anything he wasn't ready for.

Greg nods.

"Stay behind me, you have no weapon, we might be wrong. But we're not taking any chances."

Greg nods again. He's feeling a little queasy. He knows they aren't wrong. It was Standing all along. They walk quietly, but with purpose towards the first container, and push themselves up against it. They walk quietly along the outside listening for any noise. Greg motions downwards. Ryan's eyes follow his finger, a shoe print, Nike Air Max. They quietly follow the prints to a door, and listen carefully for any noise.

"So, after Davies it's you. Next in line. I suppose I shoulda known. Especially when you went underground. Into hiding, you knew, once everyone started dying...you knew I'd find you."

There's a muffled mumble. The guy was obviously gagged.

"Those county lab guys will never figure this all out you know. I had no choice but to let them in, but they're not good enough, not at all." He laughs, "You all thought you could have a 'society' to protect the President. A 'secret society' really!" Standing is rambling. "Without you, who is left? Can't be many. I know they won't get anything from your amazing computer. Nice hiding place by the way, garage, ingenious, but it's all gone now. Along with the only guy that had seen it from the New York lab. Shame that, didn't really want to kill any of them."

The muffled voice starts up again. There's a harsh slapping noise.

"Shush, I'm talking. Once you are gone, there's no stopping me getting into the White House, and 'dealing' with the President my way!" He lets out a blood curdling laugh, "it's only taken me six years, I nearly had the last one. If it wasn't for that Marcus Seymore, I would've done it too. So now it seems it's just you between me and infamy. So it's time to bid you farewell!"

...

Ryan bursts through the door. "I don't think so Jonathan, drop your weapon!" He yells, training his gun on his so called superior. Greg hangs back as Ryan had instructed, no need to get into the line of fire. He was hoping someone had picked up their message and that back up was on it's way.

Jonathan laughs again, he turns his gun on Ryan. "You don't think I'll just kill you along with him? I don't have any problem with that!"

"I don't doubt you'll kill me, you just have to be fast enough. You're surrounded, drop your weapon."

"I'm not surrounded and you know it. It's probably just you alone," he sneers, "Mr. Wolfe."

Ryan shakes his head, "I'm not alone. Drop your weapon!"

A chilling smile spreads across Standing's face, "I don't think so!"

He opens fire.

...

Ryan falls to the ground. Standing laughs Maniacally. He turns the gun on Doug, "you next!"

He hadn't bargained on the horrified Greg running through the door, picking up Ryan's weapon and firing upon him. Standing falls to the ground, his gun flinging across the room. Greg runs to the weapon, disregarding his lack of gloves, picks it up, and takes it as far away from Standing as he can. He makes sure Standing is immobilised, and then heads to Ryan.

"Ryan." He shakes him.

There's blood pooling around him. Greg mumbles, and his voice chokes. "Ryan!" He's yelling now. Checking his friend's vitals, and trying to get a response. Doug Ware starts complaining in his seat, rocking back and forth.

"SHUT UP!" Greg bellows, "He's dying, shut up!!"

Doug stops.

Greg rips off his shirt and holds it against Ryan's wound, "come on, come on!" There's tears rolling down his face.

There's a shadow in the doorway, he looks up. "Horatio," he chokes and looks down, "I, I think he's gone!"

Horatio runs over, he leans over Ryan, "Ryan?" He asks delicately. He also feels for a pulse. People file in, Standing gets a kick to his wound from Delko before getting dragged to his feet.

"We need rescue!" Horatio is yelling. Greg is sobbing. Calleigh approaches, and upon seeing Ryan prone, and his loss of blood, bursts into tears too.

...

Paramedics run into the room. They'd been called by Horatio as soon as he'd gotten Ryan's message about where they were headed. They kneel by Ryan, Nick pulls Greg away, the smaller guy fighting to stay by his friend's side.

"Let them work Greg." He tells him, looking into his eyes, trying to keep his focus away from Ryan. Greg nods, the tears pouring down his face.

The Paramedics check Ryan's vitals, they're so faint. He stops breathing. One tries to keep the wound plugged as the other starts CPR. He breathes, then does heart massage. They talk quietly amongst themselves as they work on him. One shakes his head.

"NO!" Calleigh yells, "NO!" She buries her head into Delko's chest.

Standing is stood sneering by the door, flanked by both Tripp and Brass, both of whom decide a sly punch is required to wipe the smile off his face.

The first paramedic gets out the defibrillator, he counts to three, and yells, "Clear!"

He shocks Ryan, he listens to see if there's a response. He shakes his head again, then once more yells for the prone body to be cleared. He shocks him again. Calleigh and Greg's wailing was plain for everyone to hear. More people arrive, Natalia joins the crying as soon as she sees the blood pool surrounding Ryan. Other than the crying the room is silent. No one moves to untie Doug, who by now has fallen silent.

"CLEAR" Ryan is shocked for the third time. This time the paramedic listens a bit closer. "Okay, lets move him. Got a pulse, but it's very faint. I don't know if he'll make the journey to the hospital."

Everyone moves out of the way as Ryan is loaded onto a stretcher.

**_Dun Dun Duuuuuuuuuuuuuun... so does he live or die... I suppose you'll need to read the next bit!_**

**_Reviews very welcome! Thanks for all other reviews, etc...  
Sarry xx_**


	19. Chapter 19

**_Disclaimer: I do not own any CSI characters, the O.C's are mine, as is the storyline._**

**_So this is the final REAL chapter. Epilogue to follow!_**

Chapter 19

No one is allowed to accompany Ryan in the ambulance, the paramedics tell them they need the space. Ryan is critical and they have to be able to manoeuvre around his lifeless form. Calleigh sobs as he's loaded into the back. The door is slammed shut and the sirens start to wail.

"We're getting_ him,_" Brass points rudely at Standing, "back to the HQ."

"Hey how about my medical care, I got shot too!" Jonathan protests fall upon deaf ears.

Nick unties Doug Ware. He joins them outside, and breathes in the night air, "I didn't think I was going to be able to do that ever again" he sighs. He turns to Greg, "Thank you, very much."

Greg nods. Still too choked to talk.

"Want me to take you to the hospital?" Nick asks him.

Horatio steps in, "I'll take him. I'm going too."

Horatio and Greg leave.

...

Standing is sat at a table, his wound gauzed. They'd allowed him to see a medic when they'd arrived back, but only to stop his complaining.

"I think you have some talking to do!" Tripp gets all up in his face.

"Talking smalking, it's all over now, you guys ruined six years of hard work. Six whole years!"

Tripp looks to Brass who bites his lip thoughtfully. "I need explaining to as if I'm a child. What were you aiming to do?"

"I wanted to be infamous, to be known worldwide forever!" He starts grandly, "to do that I was going to kill President Johnson. While planning the assassination, I discovered a covert group, formed to protect the President from threats such as myself. Marcus Seymore was the closest to Johnson, and there was no way I could work any plan with him so close. Then a shock happened and Johnson didn't stay in office. So the plan started all over. It was when I received this set back that I realised that the only way to get to the President was to dispose of the protection that he had. And so it began. Not right away, I needed to plan. At first there was no suspicions at all. I've been picking members off for five and a half years. Sometimes their cases come through here. People get arrested. It never came back to me. Only recently I've been getting desperate, not getting anywhere fast. I wanted the fame and now."

Brass and Tripp let him ramble on.

"The killings escalated, someone made the government connection. I tried to de-rail the cases, it was then that my superiors decided to bring in help. I wasn't bothered. If the CSIs and Detectives from the local labs were really that good, they'd be working for me already. It seems I underestimated all of you."

...

"Greg, tell me, how did you two end up by the river?" Horatio asks gently.

Greg explains the lead they'd gotten on Doug Ware. Tells Horatio about the phone calls, how they tried to reach each supervisor, and eventually every team member. He explains that Ryan had sent him to tell Jonathan, knowing that he was the next in line to be informed of such developments.

"Then when I called Ryan, I saw a footprint. Like someone had put their foot on the desktop to do up their laces. Jonathan must have changed his shoes to go jogging. The print matched the one from all the crime scenes. Including the one from in the holding cell." The explanation is calming his nerves, so he continues, "I ran to Ryan, we drove to the River, which is where the secretary said he jogs most of the time. We saw a familiar shoeprint in the dirt. The Nike Air Max. We followed it. The rest you know."

Horatio looks at him, "no, I don't, I need you to tell me."

Greg sighs, and relays how the conversation had gone between Jonathan and Doug. He tells him about Ryan bursting into the room selflessly to save the captive. He tearfully replays the moment Ryan is shot, and tells Horatio how he felt. How the adrenalin took over. How he took up Ryan's gun and shot Standing. He tells Horatio how hard it was to put the gun away and not to continue pumping bullets into the FBI supervisor. All the time tears running down his face.

...

Warrick with nothing much else to do uses the computer to pull up the files of all the suspects that they had, or did have in custody. He wants to see if there is any other similarities, such as which prison they had been in.

"Hey." Nick sits beside him.

"Hey," he responds, "you think Greg'll be okay?"

"I suppose it depends how Ryan does. Horatio will look out for him."

Warrick looks back to the screen and runs a comparison program.

"No way," he shakes his head, "I wish we weren't all split into separate teams, we might've seen this a long time ago."

Nick leant closer, "seen what?"

Warrick points to the screen, "look who signed all of them out of prison early for good behaviour."

"Jonathan Standing!" Nick exclaims.

"Lets see who else he's signed out."

"And get a list to the feds to bring them in."

...

"What I don't understand Jonathan, is how did you get into Liam Johns' holding cell, and how was he drugged?" Tripp asks.

Standing shakes his head, "anyone can be bought, you might want to pick up Coldfield! He not only let me in, he drugged the food while his dimwitted partner was distracted. I believe that makes him an accessory..."

Brass makes the call. Then turns back to the conversation, "were you at every scene? Your shoe print seems to suggest so."

"Most of them. I didn't want to commit the murders, but I did want to ensure no one backed out."

"And the posing of the bodies?"

"Oh ingenious right? The idea was to make it look like one killer, a serial. Strike fear into the heart of Washington D.C, but it seems they weren't exact enough. Right at the beginning, when I gave the three supervisors the files they noticed the differences. But once the pattern was established it just continued." Jonathan looks a little crestfallen that his plan to terrorize the whole state hadn't worked.

...

Archie is sat alone in the A/V lab. Cooper has gone back to the hotel, completely in shock. He works on the disc encryption again. His brain has taken a bashing this time. He's frustrated that this is one code he's not cracked. It's never happened before.

"Want help with that?" A voice behind him says.

"Homer? You can help with this?" He asks, surprised.

Max pulls up a seat. He pulls the keyboard towards him and starts to type fast. Archie's mouth falls open as the screen starts to scroll as the disc's protection is removed.

"You could do that all this time?" Archie asks.

"I could. But there was no way I was going to."

Archie looks at him for an explanation.

"This disc is, well was, Jacob Davies' list of society members. Those sworn to protect and serve the President, no matter who he, or she was. It would've been passed onto Doug Ware. But once we realised our members were being picked off one by one he went into hiding. Only so many people know the mainframe coding."

"So, you are part of all this?"

Max nods, "I've been here undercover for five years. Since they realised something untoward was happening. They weren't sure it was the lab, there's a lot of us undercover in many departments."

Archie is amazed. He smiles broadly at Max, "you're good!"

...

"Pull over!" The paramedic in the back yells, "I need your help! He's crashing again."

The driver pulls to the side of the road, he jumps out and climbs into the back of the vehicle. The machine Ryan is attached to is beeping too slowly. They watch it as they monitor his pulse.

"Starting CPR" the second medic announces as the beep turns to a continuous monotonous tone. "heart started... we need to get to the hospital and fast." He climbs back into the drivers seat and speeds off.

...

The ambulance pulls up outside the hospital. A doctor rushes out to meet them. "He's stable right now." The medic states, just as Ryan crashes again.

The doctor jumps on the stretcher as it is being wheeled to one of the emergency rooms, and starts heart massage again.

"Has he been shocked?" He asks, while working on Ryan's chest.

"Three times!"

"Three?"

"At the scene."

The doctor shakes his head.

...

Horatio parks up, he and Greg spill out of the car and run into the ER. They hurry to the desk, Horatio goes to speak, but doesn't have the opportunity, as Greg tugs on his arm. He can see Ryan through a window to their left. He's surrounded by doctors and nurses. They go over to the window. Greg who had stopped crying, began again. The tears spilling unashamedly down his cheeks. Horatio puts his hand on Greg's shoulder.

"They're trying Mr. Sanders." Horatio's voice cracks as he speaks. His eyes not leaving the still form of Ryan Wolfe. The noise of the hospital seems to silence as they watch the doctor pull out the defibrillator once more.

...

Flack rises with a start as the door to Adam's room opens, he reaches for his gun.

"Hey Flack, it's alright, it's me Hawkes," he walks quietly into the room and glances towards Adam, "he doing okay?"

Flack relaxes and nods.

"I've got something to tell you." Hawkes starts, leading Flack to a chair.

...

Flack runs up the hall. Looking in all the windows as he passes them by.

"Come on, come on!!" He's puffing to himself. He finds the one he wants. He quietly pushes the door open.

"Greg?"

"Hey, Flacky, come on in."

Flack looks nervously at Ryan. Then back at Greg.

"They say he's going to be okay. Don't really know how he's going to be affected until he wakes up properly. But he's going to make it."

A single tear falls down Flack's cheek. He walks over to Ryan, he leans forward as whispers in his ear. "Sorry I wasn't there."

Ryan's left eye flickers. Flack jumps back. "Has he opened his eyes yet?" He asks Greg, not taking his gaze from Ryan's face.

Greg gets up and joins him, "no, why?"

"I think his eye just flickered open."

They both lean forwards and watch him closely.

"Get away from me. Weirdos!" Comes Ryan's voice, it was croaky, but it was him.

Greg laughs, crying again, this time with joy.

...

The next morning Horatio, Mac, Catherine and Grissom are all sitting in Jonathan Standing's old office. They'd been requested to attend. Sitting opposite them is the man who had originally informed Jonathan that they needed to bring in outside help.

"I don't know how I can ever thank you." He starts, "I'm Horace, Horace Mines. Head of the whole FBI headquarters at this end. I understand there's a hero among your troops." He smiles.

"Yes Sir, Greg Sanders, one of my CSIs." Grissom says proudly.

"Make sure he realises what he done was special, that he is really is a hero. Especially to the young man that would've died if he hadn't have done all that he did."

"He knows." Horatio states, "we've told him a lot."

There's an awkward silence.

Horace clears his throat. "I understand you are all leaving tomorrow. Is Mr. Wolfe going to be fit to travel?"

Horatio nods, "once he was awake there was no stopping him. He's still unsteady, but he'll be fine to travel. With supervision of course."

Horace nods once more.

"There's another reason I asked you four here."

They look at each other.

"I have a vacancy to fill. I've checked your files and you are the four most likely candidates. I'm offering you all Jonathan's position. Obviously only one of you can take it. If more than one of you accept, I'll conduct interviews. I presume you'd like to sleep on it? Make the decision in the morning?"

There's a shocked silence. Could any one of them leave their respective lab?

**_It's not quite over, but the end is nigh! Thanks for reviews, more are always welcome. I hope you enjoyed, my brain hurts..._**

**_Sarry xx_**


	20. Chapter 20Epilogue

**_Disclaimer: I do not own the CSI Characters. The O.C's are mine._**

**_So it comes to a close..._**

**Chapter 20**

**Epilogue**

**Stepping off the plane, Horatio raises his face towards the Miami sun. It is good to be home. When they'd offered him Jonathan's position, there was no way he'd take it. He hopes that whatever decision was made, everyone was happy.**

**Delko stops to look at his supervisor as he passes him by, "glad to be back?" He asks him.**

**Horatio responds with a smile and a nod. Delko waits for Calleigh to catch him up, then walks alongside her across the tarmac. Cooper hares past them, dragging Valera with him, obviously pleased to be back. Horatio turns towards the small aeroplane, a figure appears in the doorway shielding his eyes with his one good arm. The other one still in a sling. Ryan Wolfe looks pale, but is up on his feet, which is a good sign. Natalia comes into view behind him. She holds onto his arm to help him down the steps to the runway. His footsteps still a little shaky. Horatio pats him on the shoulder as he passes by. Ryan offers a small smile.**

"**At least two weeks Mr. Wolfe." Horatio tells him.**

**Natalia grins, "if I see him headed towards the lab doors, I'll lock them." She jokes with Horatio. Who smiles in response.**

**Frank, last off the plane, joins Horatio. They stand in silence. The sun shines off Horatio's red hair, and it blows slightly in the light wind. With his shades on and his hands on his hips, he turns to Frank and says "home," he pauses, "sweet home."**

**...**

**Sitting on the aeroplane, Mac turns to look at the sleeping form of Stella Bonasera sat next to him. He smiles, glad to be on his way home. He glances back at the rest of his team. Danny and Lindsay are sat at the rear, playing cards. Sheldon Hawkes is sat near to Adam keeping a close eye on his friend. It'd be a while before he'd fully recover. He'd been wary to get on the plane, enclosed spaces bothering him a little. It was to be expected. His voice was still hoarse, his skin showing his severe burns. Flack is sat alone, looking out of the window, and listening to his I-Pod. He ponders how in one week he nearly lost not one, but two of his friends. He may have only just met Ryan, but he and Greg had just seemed to fit right in with him like pieces of a puzzle.**

**Mac places a hand over Stella's, she stirs and opens one eye. She looks at him, "you okay?" She asks him.**

"**I made the correct decision right?" He enquires.**

**Stella fully opens her eyes. "I think you did. But maybe that's just me being selfish." She now takes a look around the plane herself. Taking in the sight of their little New York 'family'. "Why would you want to leave all of this?" She asks.**

**He shakes his head, "I wouldn't, I don't know if I ever could."**

**...**

**Being in his office, surrounded by his own things made Grissom feel more relaxed. The flight back had been remarkably uneventful. Especially considering Greg's new 'hero' status. Grissom knew deep down Greg was going to miss Ryan and Detective Flack more than he'd ever admit. The fact that Ryan had almost died had been a sobering event. He glances out of his open door at Nick and Warrick horsing around in the break room, while Greg sits and watches. He'd be fine soon, Grissom was sure of it.**

**All of the Lab guys and girls are back in command of their respective posts. Relaying to those who hadn't attended, all that had happened. Of course in Hodges' stories, nothing would've been solved without his presence.**

**Grissom sighs at the thought of the gap now present in his team. He looks up as there's a knock on his door. Jim Brass invites himself in. "Hey Gil." After closing the door, he takes a seat opposite him.**

**Grissom nods at him.**

"**So, she stayed."**

"**She did, I won't say I'm not surprised. I hope it's the right decision for her" Grissom sighs.**

"**I saw Sara was there when we landed" Brass probes.**

**Grissom sighs once more, "her transfer came through. Which is why she didn't join us in D.C."**

**Brass nods and looks at him expectantly.**

"**She might come back. I explained about Catherine taking the job. I need her." Grissom didn't know if he meant personally, but he knew for sure he needed her professionally.**

**...**

**Catherine is sat behind her new desk. Lindsey had taken it pretty well. There's plenty to do in Washington D.C, so she was almost looking forward to the move. Max Homer enters the room. He'd been seconded to Catherine. After all of his efforts to 'weed out' the corruption from the FBI lab he deserves the promotion. Especially after five years of undercover investigation.**

**"Ms. Willows," he starts, she looks up, "everyone is gathered for the announcement." He tells her with a smile. She rises out of her seat, takes a deep breath then leaves to be introduced to her new team. She knows that first and foremost she has to get this case closed by rounding up all the people that Nick and Warrick had discovered Jonathan Standing had signed out of Prison early. It was a mammoth task, but she was determined to get it done. She will prove she made the right choice. **

**...**

**The End**

**...**

**_That's it, all done. It only took me 8 months... (that's when I originally started posting the story on the CBS Miami board)  
Thanks for reading, and to those who reviewed, you don't even understand how much it means to me!  
Thanks for the support from the chatzy guys who read, I'm gonna list you, (if I miss anyone I'm sorry, yell at me and I'll edit). Kat, Luffy, Nik Nak, Bunny, Foxy Roxy, Kells Bells, KT & Mirium.  
There will be no sequel... PM me if there's anything you feel is unresolved! Or you plain just don't understand!_**


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